
Glass 

Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



A HISTORY 

OF THE 

BAPTISTS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 
EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



v BY 

B. F. RILEY, D. D. 

AUTHOR OF 

'■Alabama As It Is," "History of the Baptists of Alabama,'''' etc. 



"Different statements of truth, different forms of worship, an altered out- 
v ard life, there may be ; but the spiritual affections, the sense of duty, the 
_harity, the penitent trust, the divine desire, the hatred of wrong, the faith 
in the unseen, which constitute true religion, belong to all generations." 

S. L. Caldwell, D. D. 



PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

1420 Chestnut Street 

1898 



I 






96 

Copyright 1898 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



JAM 7 - 1899 




from tbe Society's own press 



3for 

DISINTERESTED KINDNESS, SUBSTANTIAL 

SYMPATHY, AND FATHERLY COUNSEL 

GIVEN WHEN MOST NEEDED BY MY 

ELDEST BROTHER 

TL* flft. 1R* 

TO HIM THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTION- 
ATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 



PREFACE 



In the preparation of this volume I have sought 
to adhere as far as possible to the intention of the 
series and to embrace as much as I could of the 
history of the Baptist denomination within the dis- 
trict indicated by the title. Throughout the vol- 
ume, the relative importance of matter has con- 
trolled the fullness or meagreness of detail with 
which it has been treated. Because of the impossi- 
bility of comprehending within a work of restricted 
compass everything that might be of interest to the 
general reader, the author has been forced to leave 
untouched much valuable material. 

It will be observed, from the plan of the work, 
that the history has been gathered around the most 
eventful epochs or periods that have distinguished 
the annals of the Baptist denomination in the older 
States of the South. The history has been un- 
folded under such subjects as admit of easy applica- 
tion to all the States alike. By means of such 
treatment, the essential facts of a general denomina- 
tional history of the States of the South, east of the 
Mississippi, are easily presented. 

Indebtedness is acknowledged mainly to such 
works as : " The Minutes of the Southern Baptist 



6 PREFACE 

Convention," from 1845 to the present time; 
Cathcart's " Baptist Encyclopedia " ; Armitage's 
" History of the Baptists " ; Scrapie's " History of 
the Baptists of Virginia " ; Spencer's " History of 
the Baptists of Kentucky " ; Paxton's " History of 
the Baptists of Louisiana " ; Campbell's " History 
of the Georgia Baptists/' and Boykin's " History 
of Georgia Baptists, with Biographical Compen- 
dium"; Vedder's " Short History of the Baptists"; 
Newman's "American Church History (Baptists)"; 
Carroll's "Religious Forces of the United States," 
in the "American Church History Series" ; Cook's 
"Story of the Baptists " ; Hervey's " Story of Bap- 
tist Missions " ; Tupper's " Foreign Missions of the 
Southern Baptist Convention," also his "Decade of 
Foreign Missions, 1880 to 1890"; Taylor's "Vir- 
ginia Baptist Ministers " ; Foster's " Mississippi 
Baptist Preachers " ; Borum's " Baptist Preachers 
of Tennessee " ; J. L. M. Curry's " Struggles 
and Triumphs of Virginia Baptists" ; Broadus' 
" Memoir of James P. Boyce," and Sampey's 
" Southern Baptist Theological Seminary." 

For special kindnesses shown, the author is in- 
debted to Drs. Lansing Burrows, of Georgia, and 
H. F. Sproles, of Mississippi, Mr. J. L. Furman, 
of Louisiana, and the late W. G. Whilden, Esq., 

of South Carolina. 

B. F. R. 

University of Ga., Jan., 1898. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Early Traces 9 

II. Struggle for Freedom . . . . 50 

III. Southern Baptists and the Eevolution . . 80 

IV. Denominational Expansion 110 

V. Educational Work 131 

VI. Divergent Views 165 

VII. Interest in Missions Prior to the Separa- 
tion 179 

VIII. Formation of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention 199 

IX. Work Under Changed Conditions .... 215 

X. The Southern Baptist Theological Sem- 
inary 241 

XI. Sunday-school Work 266 

XII. Collateral Agencies 285 

XIII. Woman's Work 299 

7 



8 CONTEXTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV. Colored Baptists and their Work .... 310 

XV. Conclusion 329 

APPENDIX A. 
Other Baptist Families 337 

APPENDIX B. 

Institutions for Women and Value of Prop- 
erties 361 



HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 



CHAPTEE I 

EAELY TRACES 



ABOUT the year 1682 a body of respectable 
and well-to-do immigrants left their homes in 
the southwestern portion of England, and under 
the lead of Humphrey Blake, a brother of the fa- 
mous British admiral, set sail for America. Land- 
ing upon the Carolina coast near the present site 
of Charleston, they proceeded a short distance up 
Cooper River and built their temporary homes upon 
its western bank. The respectability of these im- 
migrants led so competent an authority as Gra- 
hame, in his "Colonial History of the United 
States," to denominate them a " most valuable addi- 
tion " to the Carolina population. From the same 
source we learn that Mr. Blake so generously shared 
in the convictions of the dissenters, whose leader he 
became, that he " devoted his fortune " to the fur- 
therance of the scheme to emigrate to America in 
order that they might escape threatened persecu- 
tion, the terrors of which were not a little enhanced 
by the apprehended accession of the Duke of York 
to the throne. 

9 



10 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX SOUTHERN STATES 

Among the colonists who landed near Charleston 
was Joseph Blake, a nephew of the leader of the 
party, who though not a Baptist, was nevertheless 
in profound sympathy with the denomination in its 
views respecting religious freedom. His wife, Lady 
Blake, was a most earnest Baptist, as was also her 
mother, Lady Axtell. Joseph Blake was destined 
to play a conspicuous part in the future history of 
the province. Already the friend and trustee of 
Lord Berkeley, one of the lords-proprietors of the 
province, he was afterward chosen, together with 
Paul Grimball, a Baptist, and five others, to revise 
"The Fundamental Constitution " originally framed 
by the celebrated John Locke. The conduct of 
Mr. Blake, from the beginning to the close of his 
career as governor of the province, showed that he 
was an uncompromising advocate of religious free- 
dom. 

About the time of the occurrence of the events 
just noted, AVilliam Screven fled from Kittery, 
Maine, with a party of persecuted folk and joined 
the colony upon Cooper River. Indications favor 
the presumption that it was the result of a mutual 
understanding that these harmonious bodies of colo- 
nists were thus brought together. One of the most 
significant facts is that the locality of the combined 
colonists was named Somerton. In his history of 
the English Baptists, Ivimey mentions the congre- 
gation at Somerton, in Somersetshire, England, as 
co-operating with other congregations, in 1656, in 



EARLY TRACES 11 

publishing a Confession of Faith. This Confession 
was signed by twenty-five persons, among whom 
was William Screven, of Somerton. Twenty-five 
years later we find William Screven at Kittery, on 
the Piscataqua River, in Maine, engaged in holding 
religious meetings in his own house. There is little 
doubt of the identity of the William Screven of 
Old England with that of New England. 

Subjected to a vigorous persecution, Mr. Screven 
left New England for the South and reached 
Charleston about the close of 1682. To a constitu- 
tion and subscription of a churclTcovenant adopted 
at Kittery, September 25, 1682, the First Church 
of Charleston traces its origin. The earliest avail- 
able records indicate that the settlement of the 
colony under Screven at Charleston, was regarded 
as being only a transfer of the seat of worship of 
the persecuted flock which had been gathered on 
the Piscataqua. In a historical sketch of the First 
Church of Charleston, which was inserted in the 
original minute book of the Charleston Association, 
it is particularly stated that most of the members 
came with William Screven from the Piscataqua re- 
gion. These Baptists on Cooper River, derived 
partly from England and partly from Maine, were 
the first to settle in the South. The strong proba- 
bility is that while they observed social worship in 
some form at Somerton, their seasons of stated wor- 
ship were held Sunday after Sunday in Charleston. 

Every Sunday morning the families of the Som- 



12 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

erton settlement would descend the river in their 
boats, following the outgoing tide, spend a large por- 
tion of the day worshiping in Charleston, and in the 
afternoon row leisurely back up the river to their 
homes. The time for beginning worship in the 
morning was made to depend upon the capricious 
subsidence of the tide, and it was as liable to take 
place at high noon as at ten o'clock. Prior to the 
erection of a meeting-house in Charleston, worship 
was held "at the house of one William Chapman 
on King Street. " There is little doubt that the 
Baptists were the first to erect a church edifice in 
Charleston. 

Naturally enough William Screven became the 
pastor of the original Baptist church established by 
the combined colonists at Somerton and thereabouts. 
He served in this capacity until 1706, when he re- 
tired to the head of Winyaw Bay, purchased land 
and built a home where Georgetown now is, and 
though quite an old man, continued to labor as a 
missionary in the destitute settlements about him. 
Upon the retirement of Mr. Screven from the pas- 
torate of the church, a preacher from England, 
named White, was called to succeed him. Mr. 
White's pastoral career at Charleston was a brief 
one, for he soon died. In their perplexity, the 
membership turned again to their venerable ex- 
pastor for a supply. About the same time Mr. 
Screven received a call from the First Church of 
Boston, to which he made reply, "Our minister 



EARLY TRACES 13 

that came from England is dead, and I can by no 
means be spared." In spite of the infirmities of 
age, Mr. Screven served the church seven years 
longer, and died October 10, 1713, at the age of 
eighty-four. 

Shortly after the colony under Humphrey Blake 
left England, another under the direction of Lord 
Cardross, a nobleman from the north of England, 
came to Carolina, bringing with him a company of 
North Britons, most of whom were Baptists, and 
settled at Port Royal Island. But encountering the 
hostility of the neighboring Indians and especially 
that of the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, 
they removed their residence some time before 1686 
to the mouth of the Edisto River. 1 Many of these 
became members of the First Church of Charles- 
ton, thereby greatly increasing its strength and effi- 
ciency. 

In 1700 the population of Charleston and the 
adjacent region numbered about five thousand five 
hundred, the larger portion of which was within 
the city proper. At that date all the facilities for 
divine worship and all the schools connected with 
the province were confined to the limits of Charles- 
ton. The outlying population afforded an excellent 
field for missionary labor, and right zealously was 
the opportunity seized upon by the Baptists, who 
were the pioneers of missions in South Carolina. 

1 Hewit, "History of South Carolina and Georgia," Vol. I., 
p. 89. 



14 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

The English Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts did not enter this field 
until 1707, but wherever their representatives went 
they found that they had been preceded by the Bap- 
tists. 1 

At the period of Mr. Screven's death there was 
in the Carolina province a population of about fif- 
teen thousand, fully one-half of which was slaves. 
The virgin soil was productive of the most gratify- 
ing harvests, the forests yielded an abundance of 
the finest timbers for distant markets, the woods 
abounded in game, and the streams and seas were 
filled with excellent fish. Industry and thrift in 
commercial quarters were equaled only by the dili- 
gence of the local missionary. 

William Peartt, who was second in the order of 
pastoral succession to Screven, was a most assidu- 
ous and enterprising advocate of church extension. 
He was pastor of the church at Charleston for a 
period of ten years, during which time he was in- 
strumental in the erection of houses of worship on 
Edisto Island, on Ashley River, and in Stono, six- 
teen miles distant from Charleston. 2 

As opportunity would offer, the Charleston pastor 
would minister to these mission stations in person, 
or else authorize some of its gifted members to do 
so. In this way William Tilley, first as a licen- 
tiate of the mother church in Charleston, and after- 

1 Humphrey, pp. 88, 95, 108, etc. 
2 Manly, "Two Centuries," p. 94. 



EAELY TRACES 15 

ward as an ordained minister, rendered valuable 
service on Edisto Island. None of these stations 
became organized churches until some years after 
this period. 

Virginia. — Although Virginia was settled as 
early as 1607, a Baptist church was not organized 
until 1714, more than a century afterward. That 
there were Baptists scattered throughout some por- 
tions of Virginia seems quite clear. There were 
dissenters in the province as early as 1648, but it is 
claimed that they were for the most part Congre- 
gationalists. 1 In the Assembly of 1661-62, there 
was an act passed which seems to have been di- 
rected against the Baptists : 

Whereas, Many schismatical persons, out of their 
aversion to the orthodox established religion, or out of 
the newfangled conceits of their own heretical inventions, 
refuse to have their children baptized, 

Be it therefore Enacted, That all persons that in con- 
tempt of the divine sacrament of baptism, shall refuse 
when they may carry their child to a lawful minister in 
that county, to have them baptized, shall be amerced 
two thousand pounds of tobacco, half to the informer, 
half to the public. 

Notwithstanding the English Act of Toleration 
Was adopted in 1689, it did not become operative in 
Virginia for twenty years. When the provisions of 
the Act began to assume practical shape, in the 
early years of the eighteenth century, the Baptists 

1 Newman, " American Church History," Vol. II., p. 229. 



16 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

of the province began to show themselves, espe- 
cially in the Isle of Wight. 

Responding to the first note of encouragement, a 
small body of Baptists in Isle of Wight County 
appealed to the London Association for missionaries. 
Two missionaries, Robert Nordin and Thomas 
White, were sent out from London in response to 
this demonstration from Virginia, but the latter of 
these died before he reached the shores of America. 
Mr. Nordin, however, reached the province safely, 
and at once threw himself zealously into the work 
of evangelization. In anticipation of the advent 
of pastors from England, a body of Baptists seemed 
already to have been formed at Burleigh, on the 
south bank of the James. The constitution of the 
church, which is now known as Mill Swamp, was 
promptly effected, the organization taking place in 
1714. Later, Nordin was reinforced from England 
by two other missionaries, Messrs. Jones and Mintz. 
From Burleigh, in the county of Isle of Wight, 
these ardent missionaries crossed over into the 
county of Surrey, and constituted another church 
at Branden. This is believed to be the same which 
is known to-day as Otterdam's Church. 

About 1743 Baptist missionaries from Maryland 
entered the northern portion of Virginia, which was 
now becoming thickly populated. The prime 
movers in this evangelistic undertaking are sup- 
posed to have been Edmund Hays and Thomas 
Yates, of the Sater's Baptist Church, Maryland. 



EARLY TRACES 17 

In the midst of the expanding settlements in Berk- 
ley, London, and Rockingham counties, these Mary- 
land missionaries found a fruitful field for evan- 
gelistic effort. These ministers were succeeded in 
this portion of Virginia by Revs. Loveall, Heton, 
and Garrard, the last named of whom removed from 
Pennsylvania in 1754. With consuming zeal they 
went from house to house in the different settle- 
ments delivering the message of salvation. As 
opportunity would offer they would appoint occa- 
sions for holding public services, which were almost 
invariably attended with remarkable demonstrations 
of interest. Not infrequently persons would ride 
the distance of forty miles in order to hear the gos- 
pel. Vast crowds would assemble under the shades 
of wide-spreading trees, bush arbors, and even 
under spacious stock sheds, in order to listen to 
preaching. As a result of this missionary energy, 
Opecon, Mill Creek, Ketocton, and other churches 
along the northern border were constituted and 
promptly became members of the Philadelphia 
Association. 

At this period two valuable accessions were 
gained from the Pedobaptists in the persons of Shu- 
bael Stearns and Daniel Marshall. Mr. Stearns 
came to the Baptists from the New Lights, or Sepa- 
rates, and was converted under the preaching of 
Whitefield about the year 1740. As a New Light 
he engaged in preaching for a number of years, 
when his attention was directed to the examination 

B 



18 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

of the New Testament upon the matter of baptism. 
The result led to the renunciation of his former 
views and to his union with a Baptist church. He 
was immersed by Wait Palmer, at Tolland, Con- 
necticut, on May 20, 1751, and was at once or- 
dained to the work of the ministry. After contin- 
uing for a brief period in New England, Mr. 
Stearns removed to Virginia, where he labored in 
the counties of Berkley and Hampshire. Subse- 
quently he settled in Guilford County, North Caro- 
lina, where we shall have occasion to hear of him at 
a later period. 

Daniel Marshall was reared a Presbyterian, in the 
ranks of which denomination he served as deacon 
for a period of nearly twenty years. Brought under 
the influence of Whitefield's preaching, he was fired 
with new zeal and earnestly craved the opportunity 
of breaking the bread of life to the Mohawk In- 
dians near the headwaters of the Susquehanna. He 
undertook a mission to the Indians, but hostilities 
among the savage tribes prompted his removal to 
Connogogig, Pennsylvania, and thence to a point 
near Winchester, Virginia. Being led to an impar- 
tial investigation of the faith and order of the Bap- 
tists, he became united with a Baptist church, was 
immersed, and straightway licensed to preach. Like 
Stearns, he tarried for a period in Virginia, then 
moved toward the South and settled at Hugwarry, 
North Carolina. Marshall was a brother-in-law to 
Stearns. 



EARLY TRACES 19 

The earliest Baptist churches of Virginia, like 
most of those first organized in the South, were 
deeply infected with Arminianism. This was due 
to the fact that many of the earliest preachers in 
the South came direct from England and were the 
exponents of the principles of the General Baptists 
of Great Britain. While the ordinances of baptism 
and the Lord's Supper were stoutly insisted upon 
by these early preachers, faith and conversion were 
not demanded as prerequisites. 

To the Philadelphia Association the Baptists of 
the South are chiefly indebted for a correction of 
this laxness in doctrine. This Association deputed 
Benjamin Miller and Peter P. Vanhorn to travel 
southward among the Baptist churches " and to set 
things in order among them." By some, these men 
of God were received with distrustfulness, but gen- 
erally they were most cordially welcomed by the 
churches, and listened to with marked attention. 
The result of their protracted tour through the 
States of the South was a general abandonment of 
flabbiness of practice and an adoption of the views 
of the Regular Baptists. 

Maryland. — When we turn to Maryland to 
seek for the first traces of the Baptists in that 
province, we find a condition of affairs entirely dif- 
ferent from that which exists in the province 01 
Virginia. In Maryland, the earliest Baptists were 
favored with far greater freedom than was enjoyed 



20 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

by their brethren on the west side of the Potomac. 
The civil and religious spirit of that early period 
finds expression in an enactment of the Assembly 
of Maryland in 1649 : 

That no persons professing to believe in Jesus Christ 
shall be molested in the respect of their religion, or the 
free exercise thereof, or be compelled to the belief or 
practice of any other religion against their consent, so 
that they be not unfaithful to the proprietary, or conspire 
against civil government. That persons molesting any 
other in respect of his religious tenets shall pay treble 
damages to the party aggrieved and twenty to the pro- . 
prietary. That the reproaching any with opprobrious 
epithets of religious distinctions shall forfeit ten shill- 
ings to the person aggrieved. That any one speaking 
reproachfully against the Blessed Virgin, or the Apos- 
tles, shall forfeit five pounds, but blasphemy against 
God shall be punished with death. 1 

At the time of the enactment of this law, Mary- 
land was under Roman Catholic domination. It is 
a matter of surprise to find expressed such liberal 
sentiments toward dissenters. This becomes more 
remarkable still when we bear in mind that at this 
time the Baptists were stoutly opposing the en- 
croachments of Rome in different portions of Mary- 
land. In 1709 a representative of the General 
Baptists, named Henry Sater's, reached Maryland 
from England and interested himself at once in the 
propagation of Baptist principles. The result of 
his labors was the constitution of a church at Chest- 
^halmer, "Political Annals," Vol.* I., p. 218. 



EAKLY TKACES 21 

nut Ridge, in 1742, which was the first Baptist 
church founded in Maryland. This church, to 
which was given the name Sater's, is located 
about ten miles north of Baltimore, where worship 
is maintained to the present time. The church 
thrived almost from the beginning, the membership 
increasing so rapidly that within twelve years after 
its constitution it was enabled to send forth a colony 
to organize a church at Winter Run, in Harford 
County. This church, which bore the name of Har- 
ford, was ministered to by Rev. John Davis, who 
died in 1809, greatly honored for his works' sake. 
The members of the Sater's Church manifested 
considerable missionary zeal in the early portion of 
its history in bringing about the organization of 
Baptist churches in the northern portion of Vir- 
ginia. Its later history, however, has not been so 
prosperous because of a defectiveness in faith which 
has well-nigh sapped its life. Very soon after the 
organization of these two churches, Baptist interests 
in Maryland began to drift toward the city of Balti- 
more. The First Baptist Church of that city was 
organized on January 15, 1785. Its original mem- 
bers, only eleven in number, were a colony from 
the Harford Church, with the exception of the pas- 
tor, Rev. Lewis Richards. The Harford Church 
was the parent also of two other organizations, the 
churches at Taneytown and Gunpowder. The Sec- 
ond Church of Baltimore was constituted by Rev. 
John Healey, in 1797. Two years previous to this, 



22 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Mr. Healey, in company with five others, came from 
England to Baltimore. This eminently useful man 
of God enjoyed the rare distinction of being pastor 
of the same church for the period of more than 
fifty years. He also enjoyed the honor of organ- 
izing the first Baptist Sunday-school in Maryland, 
and indeed in the South. Almost from the begin- 
ning, Baptist interests in Maryland were centered 
in the city of Baltimore. 

North Carolina. — The exact date of the first 
settlement of Baptists in North Carolina, we have 
no means of knowing. In his " History of North 
Carolina," Moore gives the date of 1653 as being 
that of the advent of Baptists into the province. 
Without indicating the period of their first appear- 
ance in North Carolina, Morgan Edwards, who is 
excellent authority, states that there were Baptists 
in the province in 1695, and Doctor Hawks, the 
Episcopal church historian, mentions the names of 
a number of Baptists in the eastern counties of 
North Carolina in connection with a period preced- 
ing the eighteenth century. The question of their 
first entrance into the province has given rise to 
much speculation. The suggestion is not without 
basis of reason that Baptist churches existed in 
North Carolina before they did in Virginia. The 
religious liberty enjoyed by the inhabitants of 
North Carolina exceeded that of many other colo- 
nies. While this freedom so widely and whole- 



EARLY TEACES 23 

somely prevailed in this province, the dissenters of 
Virginia were sternly repressed by the dominating 
establishment and by statutes that were cruel and 
exacting. The Carolinas were not divided until 
1729, and yet we find Baptists at Charleston as 
early as 1683, almost a half-century before. Is it 
probable that a region so inviting as was North 
Carolina would have been neglected by Baptists 
while they flourished on the same coast both north 
and south, in the one instance for almost fifty years 
and in the other nearly a decade and a half, and 
under the most oppressive conditions ? Still we are 
not able to find an organic body of Baptists in 
North Carolina earlier than 1727, at which time a 
church, said to be the first, was constituted on 
Chowan River in Perquimans County by the Rev. 
Paul Palmer. It has usually been assumed that the 
North Carolina Baptists were emigrants from Vir- 
ginia when, for reasons already given, a reversal of 
the presumption would be more credible. For from 
the period when the church was established upon 
the Chowan to 1755, a period of twenty-eight years, 
the prosperity of the North Carolina Baptists was 
phenomenal. They not only grew rapidly in num- 
bers, but they were remarkably aggressive. Dur- 
ing the same period the Baptists of tidewater Vir- 
ginia were a struggling and un progressive folk. 

Paul Palmer, the reputed " father of the Baptists 
of North Carolina," hailed from the Welsh Tract 
Church, Pennsylvania, and was a correspondent of 





24 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

John Comer, of Newport, B,. I. The probability is 
not without strength that this remarkable man was 
attracted to North Carolina because of the unmo- 
lested enjoyment of freedom on the part of the 
Baptists of that region. 

Like those of the colonies already noticed, save 
that of South Carolina, the Baptists of North Caro- 
lina were General Baptists who held that the pro- 
visions of the gospel were general in their nature. 
Screven and his followers at Charleston were Par- 
ticular Baptists, or Calvinists, who held rigidly to 
the doctrines of predestination and particular elec- 
tion. When in 1728 the tide was turned against 
the General Baptists, who had hitherto prevailed, 
and the Particular Baptists assumed denominational, 
direction in America, which result was largely due 
to Whitefield and the Calvinists, Philadelphia and. 
Charleston became two great centers of Calvinisticu, 
influence. We have already noticed the action 
taken by the Philadelphia Association in commis- 
sioning Miller and Vanhorn to travel southward to 
correct the evils growing out of the Arminian prin- 
ciples held by the General Baptists. This action 
was taken by the Philadelphia Association in the 
autumn of 1755. The Charleston Association had 
taken the same step in the spring of 1755 when 
that body sent John Gano and Kobert Williams 
upon the same mission. The combined efforts of 
these evangelistic commissioners were eminently 
successful. The year 1755 marks the date of the 



EARLY TRACES 25 

reformation of the Baptist churches of North Caro- 
lina. 

The church formed by Palmer in 1727 was fol- 
lowed by the constitution of the Meherrin Church 
by Joseph Parker in 1729, and by the organization 
of another at Sandy Run in 1740, which was made 
up of a colony from the Meherrin Church, and by 
still another under the auspices of William So- 
journer in 1742, in Halifax County. Ten years 
later we find that the number of churches had in- 
creased to sixteen. 

When Gano, Williams, Miller, and Yanhorn 
reached North Carolina they found the Baptist 
churches in a most deplorable condition. To bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper were added, as of about 
equal authority, the rites of love-feasts, laying on 
of hands after baptism, washing of feet, anointing 
the sick, the right hand of fellowship, the kiss of 
charity, and the public consecration of children 
without christening. Induced by degrees to aban- 
don these doctrinal appendages, the churches were 
ultimately persuaded to adopt the London Confes- 
sion of Faith. 

The stoutest opponent of this reformatory move- 
ment was Joseph Parker, who, in the lead of the 
Meherrin Church, vehemently protested against the 
adoption of the views of the Particular Baptists. 
But with such overwhelming power did the reforma- 
tion proceed, that even as doughty an opponent as 
Parker succumbed, and Calvinism was permanently 



26 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

established among the Baptist churches of North 
Carolina. Special distinction is to be accorded to 
the Baptists of this province because of their rela- 
tion to the prestige enjoyed by the denomination in 
the South. 

Under the leadership of Shubael Stearns and 
Daniel Marshall, North Carolina became the center 
and power of influence of the great movement for 
liberty on the part of the Separate Baptists. This 
spirit of freedom which came to pervade the ranks 
of the denomination throughout South Carolina, 
Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, ema- 
nated from the counties of Guilford, Randolph, and 
Orange, in North Carolina, where lived and labored 
Daniel Marshall and Shubael Stearns. The fact 
must not be overlooked that it was the Separate 
Baptists who bore the brunt of the long and terri- 
ble struggle Avaged for religious freedom on the part 
of the Baptists of the South. 

Georgia. — While Baptist principles were mak- 
ing initial headway in Maryland, Virginia, and the 
Carolinas, seed was being sown by diligent hands in 
the province of Georgia. 

In January, 1733, an English ship, with thirty- 
four families containing one hundred and twenty- 
six persons, touched at Charleston, South Carolina. 
The passengers on board this good ship "Anne," 
were under the direction of James Oglethorpe, 
whose destination was the yet unoccupied territory 



EARLY TRACES 27 

of Georgia, which was still unnamed except in the 
sealed charter in the possession of Oglethorpe. 
From Charleston the vessel conveyed the party of 
colonists to the present site of Savannah, where 
they established their first homes in these primitive 
wilds. Among the original inhabitants of Georgia 
were a few Baptists, who upon arrival were dispersed 
here and there without the formation of a church. 
Among the Baptists who first reached this new 
province were William Calvert, William Slack, 
Thomas Walker, Nathaniel Polhill, John Dunham, 
and Sarah Clancy, of whom the last two named ac- 
companied Oglethorpe. This number was grad- 
ually increased by accessions from England and 
from the northern colonies of America. 

The original settlement of Georgia was based 
upon the idea of benevolence. Oglethorpe pro- 
posed to found in these Western wilds an asylum 
for the poor but respectable Englishmen, in which 
plan he was supported by an association of his 
countrymen. In order to provide for the penniless 
children in these inhospitable wilds, it was pro- 
posed privately by John Wesley and James Ogle- 
thorpe to erect an orphans' home in the neighbor- 
hood of Savannah. For some reason the project 
was never undertaken by these worthy gentlemen, 
but in 1740 Whitefield established such an asylum 
at Savannah. It was this enterprise which evoked 
from Rev. Mr. Lewis, of Margate, England,- the 
sneering remark, " There are descendants of the 



28 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Moravian Anabaptists in the new plantation of 
Georgia." No formal declaration of Baptist prin- 
ciples was heard from the colony, however, until 
some years later. In 1751, a young Englishman, 
who was just twenty-one years of age, was made the 
superintendent of the Whitefield Orphan Home./ 
In the person of Superintendent Bedgewood were 
combined the elements of a good classical education 
and the gifts of an effective speaker. Shortly after 
his assumption of the superintendency of the 
Orphan Home, Nicholas Bedgewood was led to 
embrace Baptist sentiments, bat it was not until 
1757 that he made a public profession of faith. 
Doubtless this was due to the fact that there was no 
Baptist church at this period in the province of 
Georgia. But during the year named, 1757, we 
find him going to Charleston and requesting bap- 
tism at the hands of Oliver Hart, who at that time 
was pastor of the First Baptist Church of that city. 
His ordination to the ministry following two years 
later, we find Mr. Bedgewood preaching, as he had 
opportunity, in the region of the Orphan Home. 
In 1763 he began to gather in the fruits of his 
labors, for during that year he baptized a number 
of candidates, among whom was Benjamin Stirk, 
who afterward became a useful minister. It is most 
likely that Mr. Bedgewood was authorized by the 
First Church of Charleston, of which he was a 
member, to administer the ordinances to such as 
professed faith in Christ under his preaching. It 



EARLY TRACES 29 

was a custom of the early Baptist churches of the 
South to make incursions into unevangelized regions, 
as the colonists would continue to increase, and es- 
tablish what was known as " branch churches." 
These mission posts were nursed by the parent or- 
ganization until they became sufficiently strong for 
independent existence. 

After his baptism Mr. Stirk began to preach 
and proved a most zealous and successful mission- 
ary. Removing to Tuckaseeking, twenty miles into 
the interior, he preached to such as he could gather 
from time to time into his own house. Having be- 
come a member of the Euhaw Church, on the Caro- 
lina side of the Savannah River, he was not long in 
establishing a mission station at Tuckaseeking, 
which became a " branch " of that church. Mr. 
Stirk spent the remainder of his life in this region, 
preaching with unabated zeal until his death in 
1770. 

The little band of Baptists at Tuckaseeking hav- 
ing learned, the following year, that Mr. Botsford, 
a licentiate from the First Church, Charleston, was 
visiting the Euhaw Church, sent an invitation to him 
to visit them. Accompanied by Rev. Francis Pelot, 
who was at that time pastor of the Euhaw Church, 
Mr. Botsford visited the little flock and preached to 
them on June 27, 1771. He was a missionary 
who was laboring under the auspices of the First 
Church, Charleston, but it seems that up to this 
time his evangelistic efforts had been confined to the 



30 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX SOUTHERN STATES 

eastern side of the Savannah. Being pressed by 
the isolated band at Tuckaseeking to abide with 
them, he consented to serve them for the period of 
a year by being permitted to give a portion of his 
time to preaching to the settlements on both sides 
of the river. 

While the cause was being thus nourished in the 
southern portion of the province, an interest was 
being developed on the eastern border in the neigh- 
borhood of Augusta. Rev. Daniel Marshall, who 
had been baptized thirty -five years before at Win- 
chester, Virginia, and who had spent most of the 
intervening period in Xorth Carolina, was prompted 
by apostolic zeal to follow the tide of civilization 
westward, and had settled on Kiokee Creek, about 
twenty miles northwest of Augusta. Previous to 
his settlement in Georgia, he had lingered for a 
while at Horse Creek, South Carolina, whence he 
had made several visits to the settlements on the 
west side of the Savannah, preaching as he could, 
sometimes in outhouses, and at others under the 
great trees of the forest. On one occasion, while 
conducting religious service in a grove and while 
upon his knees offering the opening prayer, he was 
suddenly interrupted by a heavy hand being laid 
upon his shoulder with the exclamation, " You are 
my prisoner!" Rising from the posture of devo- 
tion, the venerable man of God, with benignant face 
and snow-white hair, stood front to front with a 
stern officer of the law. The devout preacher was 



EARLY TRACES 31 

informed that he was a transgressor of the law in 
that he had " preached in the parish of St. Paul ! " 
In brief, Mr. Marshall had violated the enactment 
of 1758 which provided that worship in the colony 
should be " according to the rites and ceremonies of 
the Church of England." Thereupon he was forced 
to give security for his appearance in Augusta on 
the following Monday to answer for a violation of 
the law. Having undergone his trial with meekness 
and patience he was ordered to leave the province of 
Georgia and to visit it no more in the capacity of 
a preacher. With fervor and stern courage he 
boldly replied, " Whether it be right to obey God 
or man, judge ye " ; and fearlessly disregarding the 
existing statute, the prisoner-preacher continued 
persistently to proclaim the gospel. 1 The sequel of 
the scene of the arrest was that of honest indigna- 
tion on the part of all present, to which sentiment 
Mrs. Marshall gave earnest expression with solemn 
denunciation of the law, quoting with fluency pas- 
sage after passage of Scripture. The stern consta- 
ble, Samuel Cartlege, was so impressed by the in- 
spired words to which she gave utterance, that he 
was pricked to the heart, and was ultimately led to 
Christ. Five years later Mr. Marshall baptized 
this same constable, and afterward he so commended 
himself that he became a deacon of the church at 
Kiokee. Later still, Mr. Cartlege was ordained a 

1 Sketch by Rev. Abraham Marshall,- "Analytical Reposi- 
tory," 1802. 



32 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

preacher, and for half a century zealously proclaimed 
the gospel. 

The Kiokee Church was the first regularly organ- 
ized Baptist church in the province of Georgia. 
Its constitution took place in 1772 under the fol- 
lowing Act of incorporation : 

An Act for incorporating the Anabaptist church on the 

Kioka, in the county of Richmond. 

Whereas, A religious society has, for many years past, 
been established on the Kioka, in the county of Rich- 
mond, called and known by the name of "The Anabap- 
tist church on Kioka ' ' : 

Be it Enacted, That Abraham Marshall, William Will- 
ingham, Edmund Cartlege, John Landers, James 
Simmes, Joseph Ray, and Lewis Gardener be, and they 
are hereby declared to be, a body corporated, by the 
name and style of "The Trustees of the Anabaptist 
church on Kioka." 

And he it further Enacted, That the trustees (here the 
names already given are repeated) of the said Anabap- 
tist church shall hold their office for the term of three 
years ; and on the third Saturday of November in every 
third year, after the passing of this Act, the supporters 
of the gospel in said church shall convene at the meet- 
ing-house of said church, and there between the hours 
of ten and four elect from among the supporters of the 
gospel in said church seven discreet persons as Trustees, 
etc. 

Seaborn Jones, Speaker. 

Nathan Brownson, President Senate. 

Edmund Telfair, Governor. 
December 23, 1789. 1 

1 Watkin's "Digest," p. 409, and "Digest" of Marbury and 
Crawford, p. 143. 



EARLY TRACES 33 

Mr. Marshall became the first pastor of the 
church and continued his labors in connection with 
it until his death. Contemporaneous with Mr. 
Marshall as true yoke-fellows were Sanders Walker, 
Solomon Thompson, and Alexander Scott. 

At first the early Baptists of Georgia were some- 
what annoyed by the differences which existed be- 
tween the General and Regular Baptists, but these 
differences were eventually settled by casting out 
the Arminian features of the General Baptists. 

Kentucky. — When we consider the earliest 
traces of the Baptists of Kentucky, we discover 
that they were the first actual settlers of that terri- 
tory. These pioneer Baptists came over from 
North Carolina. A brother of the archetype of the 
hunter and wilderness wanderer, Daniel Boone, was 
a Baptist preacher. 

When the daring Boones ventured across the 
Alleghanies which walled off the West and boldly 
invaded the beautiful and fertile regions beyond, 
they found that " it was a fair and smiling land of 
groves and glades and running waters, where the 
open forests grew tall and beautiful, and where in- 
numerable herds of game grazed, wandering care- 
lessly to and fro along the trails they had trodden 
during countless generations." So far as the mem- 
bers of the household of the Boones were Chris- 
tians, they were Baptists, though the great Indian 
fighter was never a member of any church. 

c 



34 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

The first Baptist preacher who entered Kentucky 
before the settlements began, excepting 'Squire 
Boone, was Thomas Tinsley. He was doubtless the 
first to preach the gospel in the region of " the dark 
and bloody ground," and, so far as can be ascer- 
tained, was the first to preach in all the region of 
the West. 1 It is not known from what quarter 
Tinsley came, though it is supposed that he re- 
moved from Virginia. William Hickman and 
George Stokes Smith who became conspicuous in 
the early annals of Kentucky Baptists, removed 
from Virginia and settled in the new territory in 
1776. Mr. Hickman was not a preacher until 
some time after his arrival. He was induced by 
Thomas Tinsley to enter the sacred work, and 
proved to be one of the most active and efficient 
ministers of the early Baptist preachers of Ken- 
tucky. Among the colonists who continued to cross 
the mountains to make their homes in Kentucky 
was a goodly sprinkling of Baptists. Like their 
fellow-pioneers they were partly actuated by a dar- 
ing spirit and partly lured by the fertility and 
grandeur of this newly discovered region. 

Unlike most of the regions first settled by the 
whites in the South, Kentucky was not occupied by 
the Indians except as a common hunting-ground 
for the tribes which inhabited the domains north 
and south of it. At certain seasons roving war par- 
ties or hunting bands from beyond the Ohio and the 

Spenser, " History of Kentucky Baptists," Vol. I., p. 13. 



EARLY TRACES 35 

Tennessee would visit this attractive section. Nat- 
urally enough these wild tribes met with deter- 
mined and bloody opposition the intrusion of the 
white settlers upon their favorite hunting-grounds. 
For the space of twenty years a perpetual conflict 
was waged between the two races. Depredations 
of every possible character prevailed. Crops were 
destroyed, stock was killed or driven off, homes 
were pillaged and burned, and the inhabitants 
cruelly butchered. Lurking savages would spring 
from the most unsuspected quarters to wreak their 
vengeance upon the whites. This perhaps is suffi- 
cient explanation of the fact that though Kentucky 
was settled as early as 1774, it was not until 1781 
that a church was constituted. The disturbed con- 
dition of the region was such that it was impossible 
for the settlers to assemble without serious inter- 
ference from the savages. 

On June 18, 1781, eighteen Baptists met in the 
wilderness under a green sugar-tree and constituted 
the first church in Kentucky, and indeed in the en- 
tire West. This church, which was named Severn's 
Valley Church, was constituted by Rev. Joseph 
Barnett, of Virginia. Rev. John Gerrard was at 
once chosen pastor. A few weeks later, on July 4, 
1781, came the organization of Cedar Creek Church, 
and a little later still this was followed by the con- 
stitution of Gilbert's Creek Church. The spirit of 
church organization spread rapidly. It was not 
long before every populous community was favored 



36 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IX SOUTHERN STATES 

with the presence of a Baptist church. This served 
to accelerate immigration from the older sections of 
the South into this favored region. 

At first the places of worship of these pioneer 
saints were primitive enough. During the milder 
seasons, they were God's own temples, the groves, 
while during the cold or rainy periods of the year 
the rude dwellings of the pioneers were the meeting- 
places of these plain but pious worshipers. Imagine 
a structure built of round logs of uneven size and 
length, and sheltered partly with the skins of wild 
animals, and partly with broad strips of bark, and 
one has a conception of the home common to the 
first settlers of Kentucky. Xo tools, no implements 
of industry could be had, save an occasional long- 
handled, light-headed frontier axe. It being impos- 
sible to obtain lumber, wooden floors were out of the 
question, hence these clumsy houses were built flat 
upon the ground, and mother earth was the floor. 
The furniture within partook of the roughness which 
prevailed without. In these rude cabins the hardy 
settlers of Kentucky lived, and for many years wor- 
shiped. Surrounded by brute and human foes, they 
owed their lives to sleepless vigilance and resolute 
hearts. Within these cabin homes the primitive 
worshipers would gather, while one or more would 
keep sentinel at the door dividing attention between 
the message of the preacher and the surrounding 
forest. 

The garb of the primitive worshipers was equally 



EARLY TRACES 37 

as rude as their dwellings. In a region where 
the arts were scant, recourse was had to any means, 
however ludicrous, for covering the body. The 
men made up their wardrobes partly from In- 
dian costume, from whatever material came within 
reach. Leather leggings, moccasins, coats and vests 
of skins of animals with the fur turned inward, 
caps of soft fur taken from the buffalo and rolled 
about flexible strips of wood and tied with leather 
thongs to hold the parts together — these constituted 
the ordinary garb of the first Kentucky settlers. 
The garb of the women was even more rude and 
grotesque, if possible, than that of the men. Their 
quaintly cut garments were entirely of dressed buf- 
falo hides and deer skins. 

Besides those whose names have already been 
mentioned, there were conspicuous in these early 
annals of Baptist history in Kentucky, William 
Marshall, who was among the first Baptist preachers 
to become a permanent resident of the territory, 
Benjamin Lynn, John Whitaker, and James Skaggs. 
At the close of the year 1780 there were only six 
Baptist preachers in Kentucky. Indeed, they were 
the only preachers in the territory, for the Baptists, 
for a period of years, were without a rival in this 
newly inhabited district. The spirit of the early 
Kentucky churches was seriously impaired by the 
infection of Arminianism, which was introduced by 
the General Baptists. The laxness engendered by 
such a spirit was greatly enhanced by the gross im- 



38 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

moralities which seemed to prevail throughout the 
circuit of settlements of the new region. "While 
there were more than twenty thousand inhabitants 
in the territory, no one had as yet been received 
into a Baptist church upon profession of faith. It 
was not because the early ministry was wanting in 
diligence, for they traversed the region in all direc- 
tions, preaching as they went. It was a period of 
gross disorder which was to be followed by a reac- 
tion in 1785, such as has rarely been witnessed in 
the history of Christianity. 

Tennessee. — Doubtless the Baptists who moved 
first into Tennessee were refugees from North Caro- 
lina and came as fugitives from the battle of Al- 
amance — the precursor of the revolutionary struggle. 
At any rate we find that Baptists were in East Ten- 
nessee prior to 1770. These pioneer Baptists are 
said to have founded tAvo churches, but they were 
driven out by the Indians about 1774. It was 
equally true of Tennessee as of Kentucky, that Bap- 
tists were the first Christians within the territory, 
and were the first to proclaim the gospel in that 
wild region. No definite information earlier than 
1781 can be obtained from existing records concern- 
ing the early occupation of Tennessee by the Bap- 
tists. At that time there were as many as six 
churches in the territory, the associational connec- 
tion of which was across the border in North Caro- 
lina. Indeed five of that number were members of 



EARLY TRACES 39 

the Sandy Creek Association in the province of 
North Carolina. In 1786 we find these early 
churches acting in connection with a few others in 
the constitution of the Holston Association. We 
gather from Asplund's Register for 1790, that at 
that time the churches of the Holston Association 
had a membership of eight hundred and eighty- 
nine. Ten years later, the same Association em- 
braced thirty-seven churches, the total membership 
of which was two thousand five hundred. The in- 
crease of Baptist strength was commensurate with 
the growth of the population in the territory. 

Writing of these early times in Tennessee, and 
commenting upon the pioneer Baptist preachers of 
that period, James R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke) in 
his "John Sevier as a Commonwealth Builder," 
says : " Their theory of morals was condensed into 
one phrase, ' Thus saith the Lord/ What he com- 
mands is right ; what he forbids is wrong ; and the 
Bible is his infallible word. A faith, how simple, 
and yet how sublime ! " 

Impelled by a common motive, it was not unusual 
for an entire church membership to emigrate bodily 
from Virginia, or the Carolinas, into the new and 
inviting region of Tennessee. After locating in a 
given portion of the country and after providing 
rude shelters for their families, the next care of the 
colonists was to erect a place of worship at some 
convenient point. Here, as elsewhere, in the pio- 
neer regions of the South, the cramped quarters of 



40 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

winter worship were abandoned for the freedom of 
the groves when the warmth of springtime came. 

During the week the preachers would till the 
soil, and on Sunday occupy the pulpits. Among 
the first preachers who came into the Territory of 
Tennessee were Tidance Lane, who had been bap- 
tized in North Carolina by Shubael Stearns, James 
Keel, Thomas Murrell, Messrs. Mott and Talbott, 
Isaac Barton, William Murphey, John Chastine, 
and William Reno, all of whom came either from 
Virginia or North Carolina. 

While the Baptist standard was being planted in 
East Tennessee, consecrated missionaries, such as 
Ambrose Dudley and John Taylor, from Kentucky, 
were operating in the middle and western portions 
of the new territory. It w T as chiefly through the 
agency of these missionaries that the first churches, 
the Red River and Sulphur Fork, were constituted 
in Tennessee. 

Mississippi. — In 1780 seven Baptist families 
emigrated from South Carolina to the Mississippi 
Territory and settled at the mouth of Cole's Creek, 
about twenty miles above Natchez. These daring 
emigrants hailed from the region of the Great Pedee 
River, South Carolina, where since the beginning of 
the Revolution they had been special objects of 
vengeance to the Tory raiders, in consequence of 
their loyalty to the cause of freedom. Not only 
were the homes of these devoted sons of liberty 



EARLY TRACES 41 

frequently plundered, but they themselves were 
hunted by the Tories from their hiding-places in the 
swamps of the Great Pedee. Attracted partly by 
the reports of the fabulous fertility of the soils in 
the Natchez region, and partly by the fact that they 
would enjoy exemption from the perpetual harass- 
in ents of such a wily foe as the Tories of South 
Carolina, they turned their faces westward. At the 
head of this intrepid band of pilgrims was Richard 
Curtis, Sr. Making their way overland to the Hol- 
ston River, they constructed boats in which to sail 
down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to 
their destination just above Natchez. After en- 
countering hostile tribes of red men on the route, in 
consequence of which several of the party were 
killed, the survivors finally reached the scene of 
their future homes. After providing temporary 
dwellings, the next care of the colonists was to ar 
range for seasons of stated worship. Fortunately 
Richard Curtis, Jr., had been licensed to preach 
before leaving South Carolina, and naturally enough 
he was called upon to officiate in the services. 
From these informal meetings came Salem Church. 
At this period the Natchez district was nominally 
under the dominion of the English, having been 
purchased in 1777 by the British Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs from the Choctaws ; but religiously 
it was under the control of the Spanish Catholics, 
whose settlements were scattered here and there over 
the broad area. Many of these were led to attend 



42 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

upon the worship of the Baptists because of its 
freedom from formality, and because of the hearti- 
ness in which it was engaged. Encouraged by such 
favorable demonstrations, Mr. Curtis by degrees 
extended his preaching tours farther into the in- 
terior. His labors were greatly blessed, and after 
some months a number of conversions occurred. 
Being without an ordained minister, the perplexing 
question arose as to who should baptize the new con- 
verts, inasmuch as no ordained minister was avail- 
able. Referring the matter to the parent church in 
South Carolina, from which these members had 
come, they received the following answer : " There 
is no law against necessity, and under the present 
stress of circumstances the members ought to as- 
semble and formally appoint one of their members, 
by election, to baptize the young converts." Very 
properly, Richard Curtis, Jr., who had been serving 
the colony with such efficiency as a missionary, was 
appointed to administer baptism to the candidates. 

From this event sprang a sensation which came 
well-nigh proving serious to. the incipient colony. 
Among the candidates baptized by Mr. Curtis was a 
Spanish Catholic named Stephen d'Alvoy. This 
gave oifense to the Catholic community, and doubt- 
less punitive measures would have been taken ; but 
as the region was under the domination of Great 
Britain, of course the Romanists were utterly with- 
out authority to inflict punishment. Had the matter 
been allowed to rest, no trouble would have come 






EAKLY TEACES 43 

of it. But a little later the colony was reinforced 
by a small band of Georgians, among whom was a 
Baptist preacher named Harigail who, with more 
zeal than discretion, began a wholesale denunciation 
of the corruptions of Romanism. Meanwhile the 
territory had passed temporarily into the hands of 
the Spanish. The conduct of Harigail, coming in 
close connection with the active labors of d'Alvoy, 
and directly following the provocation awakened by 
the baptism of the latter, the Spanish authorities re- 
solved upon making an example of Curtis and 
d'Alvoy, whom they regarded as chief offenders. A 
plan was accordingly concerted for sending them to 
labor as convicts in the mines of Mexico ; but hav- 
ing learned of the atrocious scheme, these unoffend- 
ing men concealed themselves until preparations 
could be made for their flight. The region was 
thrown into consternation by such high-handed pro- 
ceedings on the part of the Spanish officials. But 
still intent upon vengeance, the Spanish made an 
effort to seize the offending Harigail, and would 
have succeeded but for the friendly disclosure of the 
plot by a gambler, who was in turn seized and con- 
fined in prison for several months. Barton Hannah, 
another Baptist preacher, was also imprisoned, but 
his courageous wife demanded his release with the 
threat of a general uprising of the people if she was 
denied, so that the governor deemed it prudent to 
release him. Meanwhile arrangements were made 
for the flight on horseback of Curtis and d'Alvoy 



44 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

across the country to South Carolina. So terrorized 
was the population by the demonstrations of revenge 
on the part of the Spanish authorities, that for a 
time no one was found who was daring enough to 
encounter the peril of conveying to the concealed 
fugitives the horses and equipments for their jour- 
ney. A brave woman, Mrs. Chloe Holt, finally 
assumed the perilous undertaking and put them 
in possession of the provisions, money, and horses, 
thus enabling them to make good their escape. 

Louisiana. — In no portion of the territory east 
of the Mississippi were there greater barriers to the 
introduction of evangelical religion than in Louisi- 
ana. According to the notorious " Black Code" 
adopted in 1724, while Bienville was the French 
governor of the province, no form of worship other 
than that of the Roman Catholic was tolerated. 1 

Baptists entered Louisiana from Mississippi as 
early as 1798. The first preacher that ventured 
across the border-line of the territory was Rev. B. 
E. Chaney, who removed from the Cole's Creek 
community, in Mississippi, to St. Feliciana Parish. 
Beginning missionary labor in that region, he was 
promptly arrested by the Roman Catholic author- 
ities, but obtained his freedom upon promise to de- 
sist from further efforts to preach within the prov- 
ince. He died soon after this occurrence. 2 

1 Gayarre's " History of Louisiana," Vol. I. (Appendix.) 
2 F. Paxton's " History of Louisiana Baptists," p. 36. 



EARLY TRACES 45 

The next interest seems to have been the estab- 
lishment of a Baptist church within nine miles of 
Baton Rouge where a colony of South Carolinia 
Baptists had settled. Rev. Ezra Courtney, himself 
a South Carolinian, who had removed to the southern 
border of Mississippi in 1802, where he founded a 
church, at a later date served also the group in the 
Baton Rouge community. Here again was encoun- 
tered Roman Catholic interference. Mr. Courtney 
was duly admonished to cease preaching in the prov- 
ince, and was informed that persistency on his part 
would ultimately lead to imprisonment. But pro- 
curing the favor of the alcalde he was permitted to 
prosecute his work, the result of which was the es- 
tablishment of a church within a short distance of 
Baton Rouge. 

The next interest in the eastern portion of the 
State, originated iu the Pearl River region where, 
in 1813, Mount Nebo and Peniel churches were 
constituted as the result of the labors of young mis- 
sionaries from the adjoining Mississippi territory. 
These were admitted into membership with the Mis- 
sissippi Association in 1813, and the following year 
Hepzibah Church, in Louisiana, was organized and 
admitted into the same Association. About 1816 
the Mississippi Society for Baptist Missions, domes- 
tic and foreign, was organized, which society sent 
Rev. James A. Ranoldson as a missionary into the 
growing communities of Louisiana. Mr. Ranoldson 
extended his labors as far south as New Orleans, 



46 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

where a church was organized in 1818. This 
church, however, soon became extinct and it was 
twenty-two years before another effort was made to 
establish a church in the Crescent City. 

In 1818 the Louisiana Association was formed 
with a total membership of five churches. The 
growing importance of New Orleans as a commer- 
cial center attracted the attention of the Home Mis- 
sion Board of the American Baptist Triennial Con- 
vention as early as 1814. Rev. James Ranoldson 
was its first missionary to this mart of the South- 
west. He continued his labors for a number of 
years in the midst of a population three-fourths of 
which was Roman Catholic. But all efforts at 
organization failed for a long period of years. 

In 1842 Rev. Russell Holman, of Kentucky, 
was sent as a missionary to New Orleans by the 
Missionary Board of the Triennial Convention. 
During the year following a church, the First, com- 
prising ten members, was constituted. In 1854 
another church, the Coliseum Place, was constituted, 
with Rev. W. C. Duncan as pastor. 

Alabama. — There were settlements of whites in 
Southern Alabama as early as 1803, but we find the 
presence of Baptists in the territory not earlier than 
1808. The first representatives of the denomination 
came from Tennessee on the North, and across the 
eastern border from Georgia. It seems that the 
colony from Tennessee preceded the advent of those 



EARLY TRACES 47 

whose presence is discovered upon the Tombigbee 
River, in the Southern portion of the territory. 
Revs. John Nicholson, John Canterbury, and Zad- 
dock Parker were the pioneer preachers who first 
proclaimed the gospel upon the northern frontier of 
Alabama. Through the agency of Mr. Nicholson, 
a church was organized on Flint River, near the 
present site of Huntsville, on October 2, 1808, 
being the first that was constituted in the territory. 
Shortly after this period, William Cochrane, a licen- 
tiate from Georgia, began preaching in the Tensas 
settlement in Southern Alabama. Later he was 
reinforced by such efficient laborers as James Court- 
ney, Joseph McGee, Jacob Parker, and Alexander 
Travis. These men were distinguished by apostolic 
ruggedness and fire — elements which were indis- 
pensable in a region without roads, abounding in 
great bridgeless streams, and one in which the set- 
tlements were widely separated, with intervening 
tribes of hostile Indians. Courageous indeed was 
the missionary who dared to thread his way on foot 
following the trail of the Indian the distance of 
forty miles sometimes, in order to meet an appoint- 
ment to preach. The most noted of the group 
whose names have been given was Alexander Travis, 
in whom were combined to a remarkable degree ro- 
bustness of courage and simplicity and gentleness of 
spirit. To him perhaps more than to any other of 
the pioneer preachers are the Baptists of Alabama 
indebted for the fundamental basis upon which the 



48 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

earliest churches were planted. The library of these 
plain and earnest men of God was the English 
Bible, which was studied at night by the glare of 
pine-knot fires when the toils of the day were over. 

Florida. — Early evangelistic work in Florida 
began in the years succeeding the close of the Indian 
troubles in that State. It is impossible to deter- 
mine at the present time just when missionary work 
began in Florida. The early records of the Asso- 
ciations of Southern Alabama and Southern Georgia 
show that, so soon as they could do so, missionaries 
from these bodies were sent into upper and central 
Florida to preach the gospel. These missionaries, 
operating from both sides of the Chattahoochee, con- 
sidered Florida an inviting field for evangelistic en- 
deavor and made it one with the southern sections of 
their respective States. Until a late period churches 
in Florida were members of the Associations, the 
territory of which embraced the southern portions 
of Georgia and Alabama. 

Work in Florida did not assume independent 
formation until about 1841. The Florida Associa- 
tion, the first in the State, was organized about that 
time by the churches in the counties of Leon, Jeffer- 
son, and Madison, together with some churches in 
Thomas County, Georgia. This Association was 
followed by the organization of Alachua in 1845 or 
1846, and this again by the Santa Fe in 1854. 

Efforts were made at an early date by mission- 



EARLY TRACES 49 

aries from Alabama to establish a church in Pensa- 
cola. But little headway was made in that Roman 
Catholic stronghold, for all the coast cities of the 
South fell under the dominion of the Roman Catho- 
lics at an early day, and until the Civil War nothing 
more than a feeble and struggling interest was main- 
tained in that cosmopolitan town. 

In 1854 the Florida Baptist Convention was 
organized in the home of Rev. R. J. Mays, in Madi- 
son County. It was not, however, until after the 
close of the Civil War that the work assumed any 
conspicuous proportions as distinctive State work. 

West Virginia. — Baptists entered the territory 
of what is now West Virginia, as early as 1774, at 
which period Simpson's Creek Church was formed. 
Seven years later, Rev. John Anderson, of New 
Jersey, organized the Greenbrier Church, and in 
1807 he was instrumental in the constitution of the 
Greenbrier Association. 

District of Columbia. — The first Baptist church 
in the District of Columbia was constituted in Wash- 
ington City on March 7, 1802, with only six mem- 
bers. They were dependent for preaching upon 
Rev. William Parkinson, then chaplain to Congress. 
Five years after its organization Rev. O. B. Brown 
was called to the pastorate of the church. 



CHAPTER II 

STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 

IN seeking to discover the first traces of the Bap- 
tists in the several States of the South, we 
have been carried much beyond the period which 
now comes under review. In considering the con- 
flicts in which the Baptist fathers were engaged in 
order to the establishment of religious liberty in 
the South, we shall have somewhat to retrace our 
steps to reach the source of these troubles. 

The era upon which we are now entering is 
at once the most eventful, the most thrilling, the 
most prolific, and the most vital in the history of 
the republic. It is a period in which were laid the 
foundation principles upon which the union of the 
States was to be established and maintained through- 
out a revolutionary future. While the liberty-lov- 
ing of the Old World had fled to America in order 
to escape the oppression which resulted from the 
union of Church and State, the advocates of this 
unholy alliance had also come that they might 
transplant the same iniquitous principles on the 
shores of America. 

In the original occupation of the States of the 
South the lords proprietaries, under the direction of 

50 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 51 

whom these several colonies were planted, were 
largely members of the Church of England. Sup- 
ported by the government of Great Britain, these 
original founders of American colonies were defiant 
of opposition and most rigorous in the execution of 
their demands upon all dissenters. To those of 
other communions than that of the establishment, 
the outlook for religious freedom was not, for a very 
long period, by any means assuring. Roman Cath- 
olics formed the only exception to this remark. 

Among the first who came from England to 
America, as we have seen, were Baptists. They 
were generally fugitives from the ecclesiastical tyr- 
anny of the old world. Believing that every one 
should be left at liberty to worship God as he might 
please, or to neglect to worship altogether if he 
might choose, they began the propagation of these 
principles. In harmony with these views they con- 
tended for entire exemption from compulsory sup- 
port of a system or creed of which they could not 
approve. This opposition they did not hesitate to 
express when occasion arose, though such opposi- 
tion was frequently attended with extreme peril. 
When, therefore, taxation on the part of the estab- 
lishment was resisted by dissenters, which included 
others besides Baptists, the persecutions against 
such were oftentimes violent. The specious plea of 
these persecutors was that while magistrates " have 
no power against the laws, doctrine, and religion of 
Christ, yet for the same, if their power be of God, 



52 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

they may use it lawfully and against the contrary." x 
The passage of the Act of Toleration under William 
and Mary, in 1689, aroused great hope among the 
Baptists both of America and England. But for 
some mysterious reason that Act failed to become 
operative in America for quite twenty years. While, 
as Doctor Woolsey says, it " removed only the harsh- 
est restrictions upon Protestant religious worship 
and was arbitrary, unequal, and unsystematic in its 
provisions," still " it was the entering wedge to relig- 
ious freedom." The passage of such an Act was a 
concession of Parliament to the dissenters both in 
England and America. If it did not bring the 
desired freedom, it had the effect of giving enlarged 
boldness of assertion to the Baptists. The colonies 
of the South, as well as those of the North, were 
modeled upon imitations of the mother country. 
The spirit of the laws, if not the laws themselves, 
were derived from England. In Great Britain con- 
formity to the religion of the government was en- 
forced by disabilities, pains, and penalties. In the 
charter of 1606 the Church of England was estab- 
lished in Virginia. It provided that "the true word 
and service of God and Christian faith be preached, 
planted, and used according to the doctrines, rights, 
and religion now professed and established within 
our realm." 

This was strongly supported by subsequent legis- 

1 Doctor Cutting, in Underbill's "Struggles and Triumphs of 
Religious Liberty," p. 10. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 53 

lation, which denounced all such provision as hereti- 
cal and dangerous. Under the exclusive system of 
Episcopacy in Virginia, such oppressive laws were 
enacted as entailed the most cruel persecution upon 
all dissenters. One of these laws in 1611 required 
every person who settled in the colony to appear be- 
fore an Episcopal minister and state his religious 
views. Should he refuse to do so, he should be 
publicly whipped. If still he refused, he was to be 
twice whipped. A third refusal led to his being 
whipped every day until he should confess. It was 
unlawful for dissenters to engage in religious wor- 
ship except in the meeting-houses of the Episcopa- 
lians. Taxes were levied on the goods of every 
man, on his property, and on his crops, for the sup- 
port of the Episcopal ministry or for the purchase 
for them of glebes or parish farms. Should a dis- 
senter absent himself from the " service" of a 
church of the Establishment, he was fined fifty 
pounds of tobacco for one Sunday, and two hundred 
pounds for one month. The penalty for refusing to 
have a child christened was two thousand pounds of 
tobacco. The original statute books of Virginia 
abound in the records of the passage of laws for 
building houses of worship in the parishes, the sup- 
port of the clergy of the Establishment, compulsory 
christening, attendance on public worship, the coer- 
cive use of the book of Common Prayer, practi- 
cal conformity to the order and constitution of the 
Church of England, and forbidding preaching, offi- 



54 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ciation at marriages, and occasions of public wor- 
ship of dissenters. 1 Nor was there existing the dis- 
position to abate the vigor of these unjust statutes, 
for when not checked by the softening influence of 
Christianity, or awed into inaction by adverse pub- 
lic sentiment, these oppressive laws were cruelly 
executed. 2 That the galling nature of these laws 
may be more fully understood, quotation is here 
made of one of them : 

Whereas, Many schismatic persons out of their 
averseness to the orthodox established religion, or out of 
the new-fangled conceits of their own heretical inven- 
tions, refuse to have their children baptized, Be it there- 
fore Enacted, That all persons that, in contempt of the 
divine sacrament of baptism, shall refuse when they 
may carry their child to a lawful minister in that county 
to have them baptized, shall be amerced two thousand 
pounds of tobacco ; half to the informer and half to the 
public. 3 

This was originally intended for Quakers, but 
was vigorously executed against the Baptists of the 
Virginia colony. This conflict against dissent- 
ers was indiscriminately waged in every possible 
direction. Dissenters who were members of the 
House of Burgesses were expelled because of their 
religious opinions. Men and women alike were 
haled before the courts and fined for failure to at- 

1 Herring's "Statutes," Vol. I., II., III., VI. 
2 Semple's "History of the Baptists of Virginia," pp. 14-23, 
294. 
3 Hening's "Statutes," Vol. II., p. 165. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 55 

tend upon the services of the Episcopal Church. A 
striking instance of this cruel enactment, as well as 
of the heroism of the oppressed, occurs in the 
records of Middlesex Court, Virginia : " Sister 
Lucretia Pritchett was true pluck : she was pre- 
sented at every Court and fined each time." 

By far the fiercest struggle for freedom was made 
by the Baptists of Virginia. For the period of 
almost three-quarters of a century the conflict con- 
tinued in that province in which the Baptists re- 
fused to desist until the last vestige of the coalition 
between Church and State had been wiped out. The 
lofty and boastful cavalier, concerning the courtly 
polish of whose manners, and the gentler blood of 
whom so much has been said and written, was the ar- 
rogant fellow who meted out only brutal intolerance 
to the unoffending folk of Virginia, called Baptists. 
Booted and spurred and of lofty port, he looked 
with disdain upon the plain and simple, but honest 
and worthy Baptists of Virginia. The treatment 
which was accorded these unoffending people for the 
period of more than half a century was largely due 
to the contempt with which the cavalier importa- 
tions, who were also members of the Establishment, 
regarded them. They were the objects of " cruel 
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds 
and imprisonment," because they were regarded as 
the refuse of the earth. Indeed, these same Baptists 
so profoundly excited the contempt of the austere 
members of the Establishment in some quarters 



56 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

that they escaped persecution altogether. With a 
sneer it was said that none but the weak and wicked 
would join the intolerable Baptists. It was pre- 
sumed that their position in the scale of social 
excellence was such that they would soon come to 
naught by reason of unseemly wrangles among 
themselves. 

In many other localities, however, the penal code 
was strained to its utmost tension to suppress the 
Baptists, who resisted the invasion of their God- 
given rights. A profound contempt coupled with a 
bitter malice led to the perpetration upon the Bap- 
tist ministry of the most cruel treatment. The 
same individual held in high esteem by the Estab- 
lishment so long as he was loyal thereto, became 
suddenly transformed into an object of ridicule and 
contempt so soon as he embraced the principles of 
the despised Baptists. Samuel Harriss, before his 
conversion to the Baptist faith, was a most trust- 
worthy citizen of the Virginia colony. This is 
shown by the several prominent positions which he 
held in society. No other than a most reputable 
citizen could have at different times occupied the 
several positions of church-warden, sheriff, justice 
of the peace, burgess for the county, colonel of the 
militia, captain of Mayo Fort, and commissary for 
the fort and army. But at thirty-four years of age 
he was led to Christ, was baptized, and ordained 
a Baptist preacher. This was sufficient to arouse 
the contempt and the ire of the Episcopal clergy 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 57 

and to call down upon Mr. Harriss their fiery male- 
dictions. 

On one occasion he was arrested and taken into 
court as a disturber of the peace. He was con- 
fronted by one Captain Williams, who " vehemently 
accused him as a vagabond, a heretic, and a mover 
of sedition everywhere." Mr. Harriss made his 
own defense. The Court proposed to dismiss the 
case upon the condition that Mr. Harriss would not 
preach in Culpeper again for the space of a year. 
The persecuted preacher stated that as his home 
was distant two hundred miles he would possibly 
not disturb them for that period of time. Crossing 
the Blue Ridge he preached in the Shenandoah 
Valley, but Providence soon led him again into 
Culpeper where, in violation of his extorted prom- 
ise, he again preached, saying : " I partly promised 
the devil a few days past, at the courthouse, that I 
would not preach in this county again during the 
term of a year. But the devil is a perfidious 
wretch, and covenants with him are not to be kept : 
and therefore I will preach." He was no more dis- 
turbed in Culpeper County, but on one occasion, in 
Orange County, he was pulled down Avhile preach- 
ing and ruthlessly dragged about, sometimes by the 
hair of his head and again by the leg, but was 
finally rescued by his friends. On another occasion 
he was knocked down while preaching. 1 It was not 
an uncommon occurrence for sacred worship to be 
1 Taylor, "Virginia Baptist Ministers," Vol. I., p. 35. 



58 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

seriously interfered with, and sometimes broken up 
by representatives of the Episcopacy. 

Stones and other missiles were sometimes hurled 
at the heads of the Baptist preachers while conduct- 
ing worship in the woods, or in private dwellings. 
On one occasion an Episcopal minister led the 
tumult against a Baptist meeting. 1 Frequently Bap- 
tist preachers were insulted while performing the 
most sacred rites. Their persecutors would ride 
into the water while baptism was being adminis- 
tered, and make sport of the most solemn rite. 
When on one occasion Robert Ware was engaged in 
preaching he was confronted by two men who stood 
before him with a bottle and drank, now and then 
offering the bottle to the preacher and railing at him 
with oaths. Unable to disconcert him in this way, 
they drew from their pockets a pack of cards and 
began to play upon the platform upon which he had 
been preaching, just so soon as he had closed. It is 
said that the object of these disturbers was to pro- 
voke him into open reproof of their conduct that 
they might find occasion to beat him. 2 

The officers of the law transcended the limits of 
their authority in imprisoning men for preaching, 
as no law existed forbidding such exercise. Con- 
sidering the unreasonable extremity of the penal 
code in many particulars, it is somewhat remarkable 

1 Bitting, " Religious Liberty and the Baptists.'' 

2 Semple, "History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists of 
Virginia," p. 36. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 59 

that there should have been the omission of a law 
against the preaching of dissenters. In the absence 
of such a law the persecutors fell back upon a stat- 
ute upon which was placed a forced construction in 
order that they might be justified in such procedure. 
The statute behind which they took refuge to sustain 
such action was that relating to the preservation of 
the peace. Consequently Baptist preachers were ar- 
rested as disturbers of the peace of the community. 
It is believed that the first imprisonment for 
preaching took place in Spottsylvania County, Vir- 
ginia, on June 4, 1768. At that time John Waller, 
Lewis Craig, James Childs, and others, " were seized 
by the sheriif and hauled before three magistrates 
who stood in the meeting-house yard, and who 
bound them over in the penalty of one thousand 
pounds to appear at court two days after. 1 At 
court they were arraigned as disturbers of the peace, 
and on their trial were vehemently accused by a 
certain lawyer, who said to the court: "May it 
please your worships, these men are great disturbers 
of the peace ; they cannot meet a man upon the 
road but they run a text of Scripture down his 
throat." One of the number, Walker, made an in- 
genious defense of himself and of his companions. 
Indeed, so adroit was the line of defense that the 
persecutors were thrown into perplexity, and finally 
adopted the expedient of proposing to release them 
upon a " promise to preach no more in the county 
temple, p. 29. 



60 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

for a year and a day." But this proposal they 
finally declined to accept and were consequently sent 
to jail. As they moved along the streets of Fred- 
ericksburg, surrounded by the guard who escorted 
them to prison, these inoffensive preachers sang the 
hymn beginning, "Broad is the road that leads to 
death." 

Upon being liberated after the lapse of a month, 
Mr. Craig repaired to Williamsburg, where he ap- 
pealed to the deputy-governor, Hon. John Blair, to 
release his comrades. Thereupon Mr. Blair ad- 
dressed the king's attorney in Spottsylvania as fol- 
lows : 

Sir : I lately received a letter signed by a good num- 
ber of worthy gentlemen, who are not here, complain- 
ing of the Baptists; the particulars of their misbe- 
havior are not told any further than their running into 
private houses and making dissensions. Mr. Craig and 
Mr. Benjamin Waller are now with me and deny the 
charge ; they tell me that they are willing to take the 
oath as others have ; I told them I had consulted the 
attorney-general, who is of opinion that the General 
Court only have a right to grant licenses, and therefore, 
I referred them to the court ; but on their application 
to the attorney-general, they brought me this letter ad- 
vising me to write to you : That their petition was a 
matter of right, and that you may not molest these con- 
scientious people so long as they behave themselves in a 
manner becoming pious Christians and in obedience to 
the laws till the court, when they intend to apply for li- 
cense, and when the gentlemen who complain may 
make their objections and be heard. 

The act of toleration (it being found by experience 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 61 

that persecuting dissenters increases their members) has 
given them a right to apply, in a proper manner, for li- 
censed houses for the worship of God, according to their 
consciences ; and I persuade myself that the gentlemen 
will quietly overlook their meetings till the court. I am 
told they administer the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per near the manner we do, and differ from our church 
in nothing but in that of baptism, and in their renew- 
ing the ancient discipline, by which they have reformed 
some sinners and brought them to be truly penitent. Nay, 
if a man of theirs is idle and neglects to labor and pro- 
vide for his family as he ought, he incurs their censures, 
which have had good effects. If this be their behavior, 
it were to be wished we had more of it among us. But 
at least I hope all may remain quiet till the court. 
I am with great respect, 
To the gentlemen, etc., 
Your humble servant, 

John Blair. 
Williamsburg, July 16, 1768. 

Forty-three days elapsed after the receipt of this 
letter before any step whatever was taken in behalf 
of the imprisoned preachers ; but at the expiration 
of that time they were released without a word. 
While confined in the Spottsylvania jail these men 
preached through prison bars to the crowds assem- 
bled without. Seeing that the multitudes were be- 
ing singularly aifected by the preaching done under 
such novel circumstances, an opposing mob gath- 
ered, and by hoots and yells sought to drown the 
voices of the preachers. Released from prison, 
these earnest men of God preached with more dili- 
gence and zeal than before. Sympathy for the lib- 



62 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

erated men was now coupled with the power of 
their preaching, and there was abundantly illus- 
trated the suggestion made in the letter of Deputy- 
governor Blair, that persecution was only produc- 
tive of richer results to the persecuted. 

In December, 1770, two ardent young preachers, 
William Webber and Joseph Anthony, were invited 
by some of the inhabitants of Chesterfield County 
to visit that region and hold a series of meetings. 
The character of their preaching was such as to 
arouse the opposition of the magistrates, who charged 
Webber and Anthony with " turning the people 
to madness." They were promptly arrested and 
thrown into prison. Certain terms having been 
submitted, they declined to accept them for con- 
scientious reasons and remained in prison for four 
months. But they were not idle. Curious and 
sympathizing crowds hung about the jail windows 
day after day, and were preached to by Webber and 
Anthony. The imprisonment of these young men 
led to results which utterly defeated the object of 
their incarceration, for it was the beginning of a 
mighty work in Chesterfield County, and led to an 
extensive prevalence of Baptist principles through- 
out that region of country. After the release of 
Webber and Anthony from Chesterfield jail, they 
repaired to Goochland County. Thence Webber 
proceeded to Middlesex County where we find him 
again thrown into prison. 

While preaching he was approached by a magis- 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 63 

trate with a drawn club, who would have felled the 
preacher to the ground had not the instrument been 
caught by some one from behind. There were sev- 
eral Baptist preachers present upon the last-named 
occasion, all of whom were arrested, the magis- 
trate being supported by a clergyman of the Epis- 
copacy, two sheriffs, and a posse. 1 The preachers 
who were seized by the officers on this occasion 
were William Webber, John Walker, James Green- 
wood, and Robert Ware. They were accompanied 
to the meeting by Thomas Wofford, a layman, who 
was severely beaten with a whip by the officers, and 
turned loose with a number of severe wounds. 
Diligent search was made through the contents of 
the saddle-bags of these traveling ministers to as- 
certain if they bore treasonable papers. Failing to 
discover such, an attempt was made to extort from 
each one separately, in a room apart, a promise not 
to preach in the county again, the magistrates prom- 
ising liberation upon condition that such assurance 
be given. But the proposal was met by a prompt 
and firm refusal. The four preachers were at once 
thrown into a prison swarming with vermin. On 
the following day, which was Sunday, their friends 
vied with each other in seeking to contribute to the 
comfort of the imprisoned preachers. While these 
sympathizers were gathered within the precincts of 
the jail, the opportunity was seized upon for hold- 

1 Semple, "History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists of 
Virginia," p. 34. 



64 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ing sacred worship, and services were announced to 
be held from the jail windows every Wednesday 
and Sunday thereafter. The multitudes thronged 
in such numbers upon their preaching that their 
enemies were thoroughly enraged and caused a drum 
to be beaten, during the service, in order to drown 
the voice of the preacher. In all this, the preach- 
ers though imprisoned were really the victors, for 
these demonstrations of disorder aroused public 
sympathy and gained respectful audience for Bap- 
tist preachers ever afterward in that region. This 
sympathy on the part of the people at large was 
not a little enhanced when these prisoners were led 
forth to trial attended by armed guards, as if they 
had been ordinary criminals. 

In the courts, personal pleas were denied them, 
and choice was given between abandonment of 
preaching in the county, and returning to jail. 
They quietly chose the latter alternative and were 
thrust into prison upon a scanty and restricted diet 
of bread and water. After four days' suffering for 
food and drink, their condition became known with- 
out, and friends really overwhelmed them with sup- 
plies of necessaries, so much so that the ministers 
were able for several days together to feed the poor 
of the town of Urbana, in which they were im- 
prisoned. 

Every incident seemed to conspire to the further- 
ance of the gospel. As has already been seen, pub- 
lic sympathy was thoroughly stirred in behalf of 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 65 

the prisoners and was deepened by the patience and 
forbearance with which they endured their wrongs. 
To all of this was added the sickness of Mr. 
Webber which, when taken in connection with the 
serious regard with which the public considered the 
unjust imprisonment of these men of God, served 
to invest the old jail with an air of solemnity and 
made it the most honored locality in all the town. 
The multitudes which continued to gather about the 
jail windows became more curious and anxious still, 
and, by degrees, came to regard the prison with 
somewhat of superstitious reverence. After remaining 
in jail a month and a half longer, these men were 
set free upon condition of giving bond for future 
good behavior. 

In Culpeper again James^Ireland was arrested 
and brought before magistrates who grossly mal- 
treated him and then thrust him into jail. The 
harsh treatment to which he was subjected came 
well-nigh costing him his life. More than one 
attempt was made upon his life while confined in 
prison, but each effort failed. Gunpowder was used 
to blow into atoms the jail in which he was con- 
fined, and the attempt failed only because of its in- 
sufficiency. At another time suffocation was at- 
tempted by the use of brimstone, and at another 
still his destruction was sought by the use of poison. 
These repeated deliverances from death, coupled 
with the tokens of love from his brethren without, 
converted his cell into a spiritual hermitage. His 



66 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

vivacity of spirit led him, while writing from 
prison, to address his letters " From my palace in 
Culpeper." Like his imprisoned brethren, Ireland 
preached to the crowds from his iron-barred win- 
dows. In the same county of Culpeper, Sanders, 
Craig, Maxwell, Corbley, and Ammon were impris- 
oned for preaching ; two private members, Maxwell 
and Banks, were arrested for holding a prayer meet- 
ing ; and Delaney, who was not a Baptist, was ar- 
rested for allowing a meeting to be held in his 
home, so utterly intolerant and filled with the spirit 
of persecution had the authorities become. 

The irony of history is illustrated in the fact 
that upon the identical spot where the old jail stood 
in Culpeper, a Baptist church is now located. A 
similar retributive justice has been visited upon the 
original location of the jail of Urbana, in the county 
of Middlesex, where were imprisoned Waller, Ware, 
Greenwood, and Webber. Numerous other in- 
stances are upon record of the struggles for con- 
science' sake in Virginia, extending even to the 
period of the dawn of the Revolution. Persecu- 
tions similar to those already enumerated were rife 
also in the counties of King and Queen, Lunen- 
berg, Orange, Fauquier, Caroline, Richmond, and 
others. 

In 1774 James Madison was so profoundly 
aroused by the prevailing persecutions in different 
portions of his native State, that he wrote to a friend 
in Pennsylvania : 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 6*7 

That diabolical, hell-conceived principle of persecu- 
tion rages among some, and to their eternal infamy be 
it said the clergy can furnish their quota of imps for 
such purposes. There are, at this time, in the adjacent 
county, not less than five or six well-meaning men in 
close jail for publishing their religious sentiments, 
which, in the main, are very orthodox. 

Be it said to the honor of James Madison, that he 
was the inflexible friend of soul-liberty in the 
midst of the most stirring periods of Virginian 
history. He sanctioned to the utmost, the views 
advocated by the early Baptist fathers, and on more 
than one occasion, as Ave shall hereafter see, became 
the champion of Baptist petitioners in the legislature 
of Virginia, against the ablest advocates of the op- 
position. 

Up to this time our attention has been fixed upon 
the struggles of the early Baptists of Virginia to 
procure freedom from ecclesiastical oppression. 
Great prominence has thus been given to these 
struggles, because of all the regions of the South, 
the greatest oppression was experienced by the 
people of that province. But ecclesiastical cruelty 
was not confined to Virginia, for wherever the bale- 
ful union of Church and State existed, there was 
oppression in some form. 

In 1698 a serious blunder was committed by the 
Baptists of Charleston in acquiescing in a measure 
which was fraught with much future evil. That it 
would lead to such serious consequences was not, at 



68 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS Itf SOUTHERN STATES 

the time, so clearly indicated by reason of the inco- 
herent condition of society. The mistake was an 
agreement on the part of the entire colony, includ- 
ing the Baptists, of course, to suffer the passage of 
a bill " allowing the Episcopal minister of Charles- 
ton and his successors forever, a salary of one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds sterling, together with a 
house, glebe, and two servants." 1 The bill secured 
a passage during the administration of Joseph Blake 
as governor of the province. Prompted by a de- 
sire to preserve amicable relations among the dif- 
ferent elements of the province, Governor Blake 
greatly favored the measure, and through his in- 
fluence, as the friend of the Baptists, he succeeded 
in gaining their consent and co-operation. The in- 
iquitous measure derived additional support from 
the amiable character and popularity of the rector 
of the Episcopal church at Charleston at that time, 
Rev. Samuel Marshall. This last fact, coupled with 
the conservative policy of Governor Blake, blinded 
the dissenters to all apprehensions of subsequent 
mischief. But when, at a later period, it was dis- 
covered that the proprietors 

Concerted measures for endowing the church of the 
mother country, and for advancing it in South Carolina 
to a legal pre-eminence ; and when it was known that in 
order to that end they labored to obtain a majority of 
Episcopalians in the provincial legislature, dissenters 

l B. R. Carroll, "History of the Colony of South Carolina," 
Vol. I., p. 126. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 69 

took alarm. It was a matter of surprise to many that 
the Episcopalians, by energetic maneuvering, succeeded 
in electing a majority of those to the provincial legisla- 
ture who were friendly to their restricted views. 1 

Having the majority, these political ecclesiastics 
at once took steps to perpetuate the power which 
they had obtained. The advantage gained in the 
outset encouraged them to take bolder strides in the 
direction of a permanent establishment of churchly 
power in the Carolina province. The next step was 
the enactment of a law making it necessary for all 
legislators thereafter chosen " to conform to the re- 
ligious worship of the Church of England and to 
receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper accord- 
ing to the rights and usages of that church." Fail- 
ure on the part of any candidate to comply with 
this provision, no matter how great his majority 
of the popular vote, rendered him ineligible to a 
seat in the Commons' House of Assembly. The 
name of such a one being dropped because of non- 
conformity to the provision, the candidate receiving 
the next highest vote was considered in the same 
manner, and was dropped or retained according to 
his compliance or noncompliance with the condition 
already named. It is clearly seen that such a pro- 
ceeding might make one a representative, though 
he received the smallest number of votes. These 
measures were enacted under the direction of Lord 
Granville. 

1 Ramsey, "South Carolina," Vol. II., p. 3. 



70 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

The result of this gross assumption on the part 
of the Establishment was great popular indignation. 1 
But this did not deter the party in power from a 
continuance of abuses, for the measures just named 
were followed up by another arbitrary Act which 
provided for extending and maintaining the mode of 
worship of the Establishment. Money was pro- 
vided by law for the erection and repairing of Epis- 
copal meeting-houses ; lands for parochial farms and 
for churchyards were provided for by donation, 
purchase, or grants from the proprietors at the pub- 
lic expense ; salaries were fixed and made payable 
out of the provisional treasury for rectors, clerks, 
and sextons of the Established parishes. Episcopal 
clergymen were encouraged by legislative enact- 
ment to remove to the province and to exercise 
their clerical functions in the several parishes desig- 
nated by law. To such as were disposed to accept 
governmental inducement, twenty-five pounds was 
given from the provincial treasury immediately upon 
their arrival, and the annual stipends, provided by 
law, began at once. 

But another measure, equally obnoxious with 
those just quoted, was adopted. There was organ- 
ized an arbitrary court of High Commission " for 
the trial of ecclesiastical causes and the preserva- 
tion of religious uniformity in Carolina." 

Be it said to the honor of some churchmen that 
because of different reasons, one or both of the last- 
Ramsey, "South Carolina," Vol. II., p. 3. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 71 

named enactments met their strongest opposition. 
The creation of the ecclesiastical court awakened 
strenuous opposition on the part of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and they 
declined to send out other missionaries until that act 
was repealed. Prompt steps were at once taken to 
bring to the attention of the mother country the tyr- 
anny which was prevailing in the province of Caro- 
lina. So impressed Avas the House of Lords with the 
presentation of these facts that the queen was advised 
to annul the offensive laws. The annulment of the 
proprietary charter was advised by the Board of 
Trade. These obnoxious laws were finally an- 
nulled, and it was manifest from this time that the 
charter would be revoked and that the province 
would pass directly under the control of the crown. 
The issue was at once joined, and the people were 
triumphant over the lords-proprietors and their rep- 
resentatives as early as 1720, but the change was 
not effected until nine years later. The utmost that 
was secured by this popular victory was the tolera- 
tion of evangelical forms of Christianity. The 
Church of England, under the new charter, was es- 
tablished and maintained in the province at public 
expense, notwithstanding it is estimated that at that 
time at least two-thirds of the population were dis- 
senters. 

In North Carolina the condition of things was 
very similar to that already described as obtaining 
in South Carolina. As early as 1678 serious re- 



72 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

monstrance was made, under the lead of John Cul- 
peper, against the encroachments of provincial au- 
thority. In 1704 a partisan law was enacted by the 
General Assembly, " disfranchising all dissenters 
from any office of trust, honor, or profit." l A pre- 
vious Assembly (1702) had enacted a law w T hereby 
each precinct should raise thirty pounds to support 
a minister of the Church of England. Naturally 
enough this produced much public commotion, in 
which all dissenters were united — Baptists, Quakers, 
Presbyterians, and Lutherans. A clearer view of 
religious intolerance in North Carolina is gained 
by the following extract from Williams' " History," 
published in 1812: 

Carolina had been settled many years, as we have 
seen, before bigotry or pride, under the venerable cloak 
of religion, began to vex the inhabitants. Provision 
was made near the beginning of the eighteenth century 
for the clergy of the Church of England. Magistrates 
were authorized to join people in marriage in parishes 
that had no minister, and dissenters from the estab- 
lished church were permitted to worship in public. 

In the year 1741 it was enacted that the freeholders 
in every parish should choose twelve vestrymen on 
Easter Monday, who were authorized to lay a poll-tax, 
not exceeding five shillings per poll, for building 
churches, buying glebes, and maintaining the clergy, 
whose respective salaries was not to be less than fifty 
pounds proc. per annum. It was increased by a subse- 
quent law to one hundred and thirty-three pounds six 
shillings and eight pence. By another law it was pro- 
1 Wheeler, "History of North Carolina," p. 34. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 73 

vided that the fee of a clergyman for marrying with li- 
cense should be ten shillings, or five shillings for marry- 
ing by publication. The license was a device for in- 
creasing the perquisites of the governor. It will readily 
be conceived that in a parish where a great majority of 
the people were dissenters they would choose vestrymen 
who had no disposition to lay taxes for the support of 
a church in which they did not worship. But when it 
was found that the majority were not disposed to tax 
themselves for the convenience of other people, a law 
was devised for compelling them, under the sanction of 
an oath, to do what they accounted wrong. Every ves- 
tryman was to swear that he "would not oppose the 
doctrine, discipline, and liturgy of the Church of Eng- 
land. ' ' Every person chosen to be a vestryman and re- 
fusing to serve was to pay a fine of three pounds, and 
another member was to be chosen by the vestry in his 
place. It was presumed that twelve Episcopalians, or 
men who were ready to take the oath, would be found 
in every parish, and it would follow that taxes would be 
laid for the Episcopal church. 

The law, unjust and artful as it was, did not serve the 
intended purpose, for there were parishes in which no 
vestrymen were chosen, except men who were called dis- 
senters, and none of them tendered the oath to his 
associates. Hence it was that in many of the western 
parishes no provision was made for ministers of the 
Episcopal church. As an Assembly had been found, 
during the administration of Governor Dobbs, capable 
Of passing the shameful law to which we have referred, 
there were people, at a future sitting of the Assembly, 
ready to assist in making that law a more perfect system 
of ecclesiastical tyranny. 

In proof of this Dr. Williamson prints a copy of an 
"Address to the Governor, his Majesty's Honorable 



74 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHEKN STATES 

Council, and the House of Burgesses of North Carolina 
from sundry inhabitants of the county of Rowan " pray- 
ing for the enforcement of the law, or ' ' that means be 
taken for compelling persons chosen vestrymen to take 
the oaths prescribed, or such other means as may pro- 
duce a regular lawful vestry." 

"There were," says Williamson, "thirty-four sub- 
scribers to the petition ; six of them made their marks, 
and some of the other signatures are hardly legible. 
When thirty-four such persons could propose that six or 
seven hundred should be taxed for their accommodation 
they certainly had need of the gospel that teaches hu- 
mility." 1 

The most serious expression of persecution in 
North Carolina occurred in Newbern, Craven 
County, in 1740. It seems that three Baptist 
preachers, Brinson, Fulshire, and Purify, upon ap- 
plication for license to build a church in Newbern, 
were confronted by certain accusers who 

Made oath to several misdemeanors committed by the 
sd Petitioners contrary to & in contempt of the laws now 
in force. Upon which it was ordered by this court the 
sd Petitioners be bound by Recognizance for their ap- 
pearance at the next court of assize and Goale delivery 
to be held in this Town then and there to answer to such 
things as they shall be charged with and in the mean- 
time be of Good behavior to all his Magesties Liege 
People. 

The old record, as examined in 1883, by H. S. 
Nunn, editor of the " Newbern Journal," disclosed 

1 Hugh Williams, "History of North Carolina," Vol. II., pp. 
115-118. 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 75 

the fact that these men were "publicly whipped, 
bound over to keep the peace, and required to give 
bond for their good behavior and also to take the 
test oath." x 

There seems to be little doubt that the preachers 
already named were not only whipped, but impris- 
oned for the period of three months. The records 
of the same court bear evidence of the fact that the 
persecution of Baptists was quite common in that 
region between the years 1730 and 1745. While 
North Carolina was comparatively free from severe 
methods of persecution, still it was visited in a 
variety of ways upon dissenters. One of the means 
employed was that of the enforcement upon all dis- 
senters of the tithe system, while another was the 
enforcement of the muster laws of the province 
against all dissenting ministers, while those of the 
Establishment were exempt ; still another was, the 
prohibition of officiation in marriage by Baptist 
ministers. The last-named law was annulled in 
1776. 

Georgia Baptists were as firm in withstanding the 
aggressions of the State upon the prerogatives of the 

1 The truthfulness of this statement has been challenged. In 
order to confirm it, the late Rev. C. Durham, of Raleigh, N. C, 
visited Newbern, but found that the old record from which the 
extract had been taken had " seemingly by design been mutilated 
— a half-page cut or torn out — a page, two pages, and at a num- 
ber of places from three to six pages, have been cut or torn out. 
When or by whom this was done, or just what was their real 
object we cannot here and now discuss" (Rev. C. Durham, in 
" Biblical Recorder," for March 29 and April 5, 1893). 



76 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

church as were those of any other of the Southern 
provinces. Their declination to pay a tax to the 
State for the support of the church was at once firm 
and positive. With equal stoutness they refused 
the funds offered from the public treasury for the 
support of their own churches. The law which 
prevailed in the other provinces relative to the levy- 
ing of taxes for the erection and repair of churches 
and for the payment of the salaries of church offi- 
cials obtained in the province of Georgia also. 

While a dissenting congregation might apply for a 
grant of land whereon to build a church with some 
assurance that the application would not be alto- 
gether unheeded, there was an evident intention on 
the part of the government, both royal and colonial, 
to engraft the Church of England upon the prov- 
ince, and to contribute with partial hand to its 
maintenance. 

When on February 21, 1785, the legislature 
passed an Act for the support of religion, providing 
that " thirty heads of families " in any community 
might choose a minister " to explain and inculcate 
the duties of religion," and " four pence on every 
hundred pounds valuation of property " should be 
taken from the public tax for the support of such 
minister, the Baptists of Georgia promptly protested. 
It would have been easy to avail themselves of the 
provisions of this Act, for they formed a large ma- 
jority of the population in many portions of the 
province ; but instead, they united in a remon- 



STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 77 

strance and sent it by the hands of Silas Mercer 
and Peter Smith, praying that a law so obnoxious be 
repealed, and it was done. 1 

The difficulties which encompassed the Baptists 
who first settled in Mississippi were greatly increased 
when they undertook to exercise the liberty of wor- 
ship. As has already been seen the original Bap- 
tists of Mississippi came from South Carolina and 
Georgia. The headway rapidly gained in the 
Natchez settlements, aroused the sturdy opposition 
of the Romish priests. No violent demonstrations 
were exhibited, however, until indiscreet attacks 
were made by some of the Baptist ministry upon the 
faith of the Catholics. This uncalled-for assault 
furnished an occasion for the vent of Romish wrath 
which had been accumulating commensurately with 
the prevalence of Baptist principles in the new 
settlements on the Mississippi. Nor was the situ- 
ation in the least relieved by the conversion of 
Roman Catholics to the Baptist faith. 

After the flight of Curtis and d'Alvoy there was 
quiet in the Natchez settlements for a brief period, 
but the Baptists continued to hold their meetings 
with more or less secrecy, and the Romanists grew 
more vigilant. Owen, a Baptist preacher, was 
forced to secrete himself for a season, in order to 
escape the clutches of the watchful priests, and 
Bailey Chaney fled the province lest he fall into 

111 Public Recs. of Ga." MS. Vol. B, p. 284, "Marshall 
Papers." 



78 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

their hands. Meanwhile converts to the Baptist 
faith continued to multiply, and at one time a num- 
ber of these remained unbaptized for a period, be- 
cause all authorized administrators had fled ; but in 
the emergency the church wisely chose Deacon 
William Chaney to perform the rite. 

Somewhat later, a minister named Mulkey made 
his appearance in the Natchez district. He is said 
to have been a preacher of more than ordinary 
ability, and one possessed of excellent spirit. The 
former interest in Baptist meetings, which had oc- 
casioned so much concern on the part of the Cath- 
olics, was revived under the preaching of Mr. Mul- 
key. Emboldened by their late efforts in the sup- 
pression of such religious demonstrations, the Cath- 
olics sent an officer to arrest Mulkey on the occasion 
of one of his meetings, but the assembly, aroused by 
a spirit of honest indignation, boldly resisted such 
unwarranted interference and drove the officer and 
his guard away. Determining no longer to be kept 
upon the defensive, the infuriated people seized their 
arms and marched against the local fort which was 
under the command of Gov. Don Manuel Gayoso de 
Senies, at whose instigation all the previous trouble 
had been fomented. Alarmed by the appearance of 
so formidable a body of indignant people, and find- 
ing himself too weak to resist them, the governor 
consented to allow them to proceed unmolested with 
their meetings, but sent a secret agent forthwith to 
Baton Rouge for reinforcements, and as soon as 






STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 79 

they arrived placed himself in a hostile attitude. 
The Baptists were again routed, Mulkey and others 
left the province, and tyranny was again dominant. 
About 1796 Col. Andrew Ellicott was deputed a 
special commissioner of the United States to confer 
with the Spanish authorities of the Natchez dis- 
trict, about which there was some dispute between 
Spain and America. Upon the arrival of Col. 
Ellicott, a Baptist minister, Rev. Mr. Hannah, ap- 
plied to him for permission to preach in the camp 
of his escort. Deference to Governor Gayoso 
prompted the colonel to refer the matter to him, and 
Gayoso consented. The sermon by Hannah led to 
a subsequent discussion between himself and a 
batch of Irish Catholics, who had previously beaten 
him severely. Applying to Gayoso for protection, 
Hannah was summarily arrested, thrown into prison, 
and his feet were made fast in stocks. This led to 
a disturbance between the governor and Colonel El- 
licott, the latter threatening to destroy the Spanish 
fort if matters were not speedily adjusted. After a 
formal negotiation of two weeks, Mr. Hannah was 
set at liberty. Upon the reluctant abandonment of 
the Natchez district by the Spaniards, the Americans 
promptly built a considerable arbor and appointed 
Rev. Bailey Chaney to " preach under the Stars and 
Stripes." An immense concourse of people greeted 
him, and great was the enjoyment of the first relig- 
ious service held in the Natchez district under the 
government of the United States. 



CHAPTER III 

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 

THE contest for civil liberty in America followed 
a long and bitter struggle for religious free- 
dom. It would seem that the one was productive 
of the other, if indeed it was not the same struggle 
which came naturally to involve the question of 
civil freedom in common with that of religious 
emancipation in the outworking of the principle of 
liberty in America. Hence it is easy to see how 
the Baptists of the several colonies of the South 
would become prompt contributors to the spirit 
which kindled the fires of the Revolution. It was 
the same spirit which had animated them for almost 
a century in resisting the oppression of a tyrannous 
power. Naturally enough they would regard the 
impending struggle not as a political contest alone, 
but as one involving all that was cherished by a 
people seeking to be free. Great boon as political 
liberty is, religious freedom is a greater. In a very 
important sense then, the matter to be considered 
now is only a continuation of that which engaged 
our attention in the preceding chapter. 

The first note of the American Revolution was 
sounded at Alamance, North Carolina, on May 16, 
80 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 81 

1771. To this event sufficient prominence has 
never been accorded, either in civil or religious his- 
tory. 

It was the first popular uprising of any consider- 
able portion of the American colonists against the 
encroachments of the representatives of the British 
crown. The primary cause of this outburst of 
popular indignation was the passage of what is 
known as the "Vestry Act," referred to in the 
previous chapter, which was adopted by the As- 
sembly in 1764, during the administration of Gov- 
ernor Dobbs. The chief provision of that meas- 
ure was the support of the Episcopal clergy and 
the erection of Episcopal houses of worship ; but 
the methods adopted for assessing and collecting 
these taxes, and for the imposition of fines and pen- 
alties, aroused at the very outset great popular op- 
position. The initial provision was that every 
freeholder who owned fifty acres of land was re- 
quired by law to meet at the courthouse on Easter 
Monday to elect twelve vestrymen. Failure to do 
so subjected one to a fine of twenty shillings "to 
be recovered by a warrant from any justice of the 
peace within the limits of said county." In order 
to exclude all dissenters it was provided that the 
vestrymen be required to subscribe to an oath "not 
to oppose the doctrine, discipline, and liturgy of the 
Church of England, as by law established." To 
these vestrymen was given power to levy taxes, to 
build churches and chapels, pay ministers' salaries, 



82 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

purchase a glebe, erect a mansion and convenient 
outhouses, maintain the poor, pay clerks and readers, 
and defray other incidental charges of the parish; 
and the minister could bring suit against the vestry- 
men if they should fail or refuse " to lay a sufficient 
tax to satisfy " him. The sheriff was required 
under a heavy bond to collect the taxes thus im- 
posed. 

The effort to enforce such a law created wide- 
spread dissatisfaction, and meetings were soon called 
by the common people to confer about the opposi- 
tion which was to be interposed. These were soon 
formed into a popular organization known as the 
Regulators. Instead of relenting in view of these 
expressions of popular disapprobation, Governor 
Dobbs became more exacting, and the complaints of 
the masses grew apace. A paper was established at 
Wilmington, in 1764, known as "The North Caro- 
lina Gazette and Weekly Post Boy," which gave 
the current news. This pioneer enterprise greatly 
aided the people in their cause, as it informed them 
of the measures which were from time to time 
adopted for their oppression. Meanwhile extor- 
tions became rife in every department of govern- 
ment. Lossing says that " deputy surveyors, entry- 
takers, and other officers of inferior grade, became 
adepts in the chicanery of their superiors." Mat- 
ters were growing rapidly worse and the situation 
was not in the least relieved by the receipt of the 
news of the passage of the Stamp Act, which infor- 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 83 

mation reached the province in June, 1765. Popu- 
lar gatherings became general. The people were 
greatly agitated. After more than one popular as- 
semblage, the people came together at Hillsboro, on 
April 4, 1767, and passed resolutions to pay no 
more taxes until they were sure of their legality ; 
to pay officers no more fees than was rigidly re- 
quired by law, unless forced to do so, and then to 
show open resentment ; to be cautious in the selec- 
tion of representatives ; to petition the governor, 
council, king, and parliament for a redress of griev- 
ances ; to maintain a continual correspondence 
among the members ; to defray all necessary ex- 
penses ; to submit all differences in judgment to the 
whole Regulation, the judgment of the majority to 
be final ; and closed by a solemn affirmation " to 
stand true and faithful to this cause until we bring 
things to a true regulation." 

Commenting upon this action of the Carolina 
patriots, Lossing says : 

The resolutions passed at this meeting were almost 
equivalent to a declaration of independence of the civil 
power of the State. Try on, who became governor of 
the province in 1765, endeavored to crush out the Regu- 
lation movement by bringing to bear undue influence 
upon the North Carolina Assembly, and referred to the 
"Regulators as a faction of Quakers and Baptists who 
aimed at overturning the Church of England." 

At the time of this period of agitation the Bap- 
tists were by great odds more numerous than any 



84 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

other religious denomination in the province, for 
there were twenty-two Baptist churches in seven- 
teen of the twenty-three counties in North Caro- 
lina. Some of these churches, like the Sandy Creek 
Church, had a numerous membership. Even as 
early as 1758 its membership numbered nearly nine 
hundred members. Trifling as the numbers of the 
Episcopacy were, when compared with those of the 
Baptists, all the public offices were held by the 
former by reason of the failure of the Baptists to 
subscribe to the tenets of the Establishment. And 
yet the Baptists paid a large portion of the taxes 
by which the Establishment was maintained. 

It is not difficult to see the inevitable tendency of 
such a condition as prevailed for many years in 
North Carolina. When the extreme of endurance 
had been reached, the people openly rebelled. The 
clash of arms came at Alamance. The Regulators, 
composed largely of Baptists, were defeated by the 
royal forces, and fled toward the West. The result 
was that this portion of North Carolina from being 
one of those in which Baptists were most numerous 
was now almost altogether abandoned by them. 
Fleeing westward into Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Georgia, Baptist churches sprang up wherever they 
went. In accounting for this precipitate emigration, 
Morgan Edwards, a Tory Baptist, 1 said in 1775 : 

The cause of this dispersion was the abuse of power 

1 " He was the only Tory in the ministry of the American Bap- 
tist churches." — Cathcart, " Baptist Encyclopedia," p. 362. 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 85 

which too much prevailed in the province and caused 
the inhabitants at last to rise up in arms and fight for 
their privileges ; but being routed, May 16, 1771, they 
despaired of seeing better times and therefore quitted 
the province. It is said one thousand five hundred 
families departed since the battle of Alamance, and, to 
my knowledge, a great many more are only waiting to 
dispose of their plantations in order to follow them. 
This, to my mind, is an argument that their grievances 
were real, and their oppression great, notwithstanding 
all that has been said to the contrary. 

An indication of the extent to which the thrifty 
Baptist communities were thinned is afforded by the 
fact that the membership of the Sandy Creek 
Church, near which the battle was fought, was re- 
duced from nine hundred to a membership of four- 
teen. 

Recoiling from the oppression visited upon them, 
the Baptists of North Carolina came to question the 
slightest assumption of human authority. Oppres- 
sion had driven them to the extreme in the assertion 
of the principle of soul-liberty. This spirit was 
shown in the fact that the Sandy Creek Association, 
during a period of thirty or forty years, and the 
Yadkin, for a period of twelve years, refused to 
elect moderators to preside over them. From a 
position so extreme, they were dissuaded by John 
Gano during his missionary tour through the South. 

Contemporary with these revolutionary move- 
ments in North Carolina was the activity in the 
same direction on the part of the Baptists of Vir- 



86 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHEKN STATES 

ginia, and of other provinces of the South. Pro- 
tracted oppression had made them vigilant of the 
discovery of the slightest opportunity to contribute 
to the growing complications between England and 
the American colonies. Promptly seizing upon 
these advantages, the Baptists of the South wisely 
and vigorously pushed them toward the desired end 
without halt or compromise. As citizens they 
struggled for civil liberty ; as Christians, for relig- 
ious freedom. 

Of one thing the Baptists never lost sight — that 
of the abolition of all legal ecclesiastical distinc- 
tions. The political crisis induced by the growing 
exactions of the mother country impelled the Bap- 
tists to struggle more vigorously for the attainment 
of that much desired end, which was sought for 
themselves not only, but for all citizens, whether 
Christian, Jew, or infidel. That for which they 
contended was a divorcement of the Church from 
the State, that the former might work out its own 
destiny unaided by the government ; in short, their 
ultimate object was absolute religious freedom. In 
this contest Baptists were aided by the Presbyteri- 
ans and other members of the community. 1 That 
the spirit of the Baptists was entirely exempt from 
hostility to any other sect, and that they were actu- 
ated solely by principle, is shown by the fact that 
at the session of the General Association of Vir- 
ginia in 1784, public fast days were set apart "in 
1 Semple, " Rise and Progress of Virginia Baptists," pp. 26, 73. 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 87 

behalf of our poor blind persecutors and for the re- 
leasement of our brethren." x 

In 1775 the General Association of Virginia 
memorialized the Convention of the province to 
make military resistance to Great Britain, setting 
forth at the same time in a Declaration of Princi- 
ples "that the mere toleration of religion by the 
civil government is insufficient ; that no State re- 
ligious establishment ought to exist ; that all relig- 
ious denominations ought to stand on the same foot- 
ing." Charged with a copy of the memorial, a 
committee was deputed by the General Association 
to attend the convention and to lay under tribute all 
legitimate means for the accomplishment of the de- 
sired end. All that was asked for was not granted, 
but an extraordinary concession was made when the 
Convention gave respectful answer, and adopted a 
resolution granting that " dissenting clergymen be 
permitted to celebrate divine worship and to preach 
to the soldiers." This was the entering wedge to 
religious equality in Virginia. Doubtless on the 
part of the Convention this was intended so to con- 
ciliate the Baptists that they would desist from 
further effort. So far from that being true, how- 
ever, it only served to stimulate them to greater 
energy and more vehement protests. If it gave 
hope and encouragement to Baptists, it must have 
indicated to the clergy of the Establishment that 
their power was already beginning to decline. But 

1 Semple, " Rise and Progress of Virginia Baptists," p. 56. 



88 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

a supremacy so long and profitably enjoyed was not 
to be easily surrendered. Accordingly the clergy 
of the Establishment began at once an active can- 
vass, circulating petitions to be signed in behalf of 
the retention of the Episcopacy as a permanent 
legal establishment, which in turn provoked the Bap- 
tists to procure counter petitions. The efforts of 
the Baptists resulted in procuring the names of ten 
thousand persons who were chiefly freeholders. 

The year 1776 marks the era of the adoption of 
the Constitution of Virginia, which instrument en- 
joys the distinction of being " the first written con- 
stitution for a free, sovereign, and independent State 
which the history of the world has called forth." 
The constitution was prefaced by the Bill of Rights, 
the sixteenth section of which, as written by George 
Mason, provided for the " fullest toleration." But 
through the instrumentality of James Madison, the 
term " toleration " was stricken out and all men 
were declared equally entitled to the free exercise of 
religion. The famous section as amended by Madi- 
son reads as follows : 

That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Cre- 
ator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed 
only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, 
and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free ex- 
ercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience ; 
and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian 
forbearance, love, and charity toward each other. 

It will be remembered that Mr. Madison had 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 89 

been a witness to the wrongs perpetrated upon Bap- 
tists under the guise of toleration, and was therefore 
the better prepared to give heed to the formal appli- 
cation of that people to expunge a " term intrinsi- 
cally fallacious and fraught with dangerous impli- 
cations," 

Animated by the victories already achieved, the 
Baptists now took fresh courage throughout the 
State of Virginia. Their work had just begun. 
They became more aggressive. Endurance of pro- 
tracted wrong deepened their determination to break 
off the yoke of English tyranny. They stimulated 
every possible agency of opposition and set in mo- 
tion a strong popular current which was pressing 
with increasing force against the Establishment, al- 
ready quaking to its foundation. Others besides 
Baptists, who had previously held themselves some- 
what aloof and had regarded the long and trying 
struggle with an air of conventional propriety, now 
joined the aggressive party against the Establish- 
ment. This was notably true of the Presbyterians, 
whose privileges had greatly exceeded those of the 
Baptists. The Hanover Presbytery for 1776, 
while entreating equal protection for all sects, asked 
to be exempt from the payment of taxes for the 
support of any church further than might be agree- 
able to their choice as individuals or because of vol- 
untary obligations. 1 

The year 1776 being that during which the first 

1 Foote, "Sketches of Virginia," p. 324. 



90 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

session of the independent legislative assembly con- 
vened, was one of the most notable periods of our 
denominational history. Anticipating the assembly 
of the legislature, the Baptists were active for 
months throughout Virginia circulating petitions for 
the enrollment of the names of those who favored 
the extension of the benefits of religious liberty to 
every class of citizens. When the General Assembly 
met in its initial session during this year, it found 
itself overwhelmed with such a flood of petitions as 
to compel the most serious consideration. This 
strong array of petitioners from every portion of 
Virginia, clearly forecast the approaching conflict. 
The " crowding " petitioners were referred to a com- 
mittee of seventeen, of which Jeiferson and Madison 
were members. A long and bitter contest followed, 
which is described by Jefferson in his autobiography 
as " the severest in which he had ever engaged." 
He further says : " After desperate contests in that 
committee almost daily from the eleventh of Oc- 
tober to the fifth of December, a bill was brought 
in repealing the laws which restrained freedom of 
religious opinion or worship, exempting dissenters 
from all levies, taxes, and impositions whatever for 
the support of the Established Church." This was 
an overwhelming victory — a long stride toward 
absolute freedom. 

But gigantic as had been the struggle, and well 
won as was the victory, the end of the contest was 
not yet reached. Seeing that the foundations of 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 91 

the Establishment were being gradually sapped, its 
friends became desperate in their efforts to arrest the 
tottering fabric. Consequently they succeeded in 
securing the passage of a declaration to the effect 
that provision ought to be made for continuing the 
succession of the clergy and for superintending their 
conduct. 1 There was in the bill passed an " express 
reservation whether a general assessment should not 
be established by law, on every one, for the support 
of the pastor of his choice ; or whether all should 
be left to voluntary contributions/' 

Having gained so much, through legislative meas- 
ures, the Baptists were willing to bide their time for 
a season, persuaded that their ultimate object would 
eventually be attained. But they were not idle as 
patriots and in the expression of loyalty to the cause 
of the colonies. Elder McClanahan, a Baptist min- 
ister from Culpeper County, raised a company of 
soldiers for the Continental service mainly from the 
members of Baptist churches. While he led them 
to battle as their captain, he ministered to their spir- 
itual wants as their chaplain. 2 In commenting upon 
the preaching of Elder McClanahan, in connection 
with his service as captain of a company of volun- 
teers, Howe takes occasion to remark that " the 
Baptists were the most strenuous supporters of 
liberty." 3 The valuable service rendered by our 
ministry to the cause evoked from Washington the 

1 Jefferson, "Works," Vol. I., p. 39. 
2 Howe, " Virginia Historical Collections," p. 238. 3 Ibid., p. 238. 



92 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

declaration that " Baptist chaplains were among the 
most prominent and useful in the army." l Among 
those who shouldered their muskets and entered the 
ranks of the American army was Rev. David Bar- 
row, one of the most eminent, as well as one of the 
most useful, of the Baptist ministry of that period. 
On the field of carnage he was as efficient as he had 
been in his peaceful ministrations at home. 2 Rev. 
Daniel Marshall, though an old man, was unremit- 
ting in his patriotic appeals in behalf of the struggle 
for independence, notwithstanding he was several 
times warned and threatened by the British soldiery. 
So persistent was he in denunciation of the mother 
country, that he was at last arrested and placed 
under strong guard ; but having obtained leave to 
speak, he so overwhelmed his enemies with his ex- 
hortations and prayers, that they promptly set him 
free. 

The influence by the Baptists against the crown 
was not restricted to any particular portion of the 
country. They were actuated by the same spirit 
throughout the entire South. The province of 
South Carolina was among the first to give expres- 
sion of her loyalty to the provincial congress. She 
organized the " Council of Safety," as the executive 
power was called, composed of a body of thirteen 
eminent citizens. One of the chief concerns of this 
Council was, by public speaking to bring the people 

1 " Manning and Brown University," p. 136. 
2 Semple, p. 359. 



SOUTHEKN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 93 

into sympathy with the revolutionary movement by 
conciliating them to the newly formed government, 
enlisting their support of it, and removing their 
prejudice and misapprehension. From the begin- 
ning of the Revolution, Rev. Oliver Hart and his 
church, at Charleston, warmly espoused the cause of 
the country. By reason of his acquaintance and in- 
fluence in the back country, Mr. Hart was chosen, 
together with Rev. William Tennent, another Bap- 
tist, and Hon. William H. Drayton, to arouse the 
patriotism of the Carolinians in behalf of the 
American cause. 1 Not less conspicuous for his in- 
fluence and patriotism was Rev. Richard Furman, 
Sr., D. D. Indeed he is said to have incurred the 
wrath of Lord Cornwallis so seriously that the 
British commander offered a considerable sum for 
his apprehension. According to Thomas Jefferson 
two-thirds of the inhabitants of Virginia were dis- 
senters when the Revolution began ; 2 these were 
composed almost entirely of Baptists and Presby- 
terians. While the latter had a number of eminent 
men, the number of their communicants was small 
when compared with those of the Baptists. This 
furnishes an indirect indication of the patriotism of 
Baptists during the great struggle for freedom. 

With 1777 came a renewal of the determination 
on the part of the Baptists of Virginia to separate 
Church and State. Having that end in view, the 

1 Sprague, " Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit," pp. 48, 49. 

2 Jefferson, " On the State of Virginia," p. 169. 



94 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

General Association of Virginia at its session in 
1777 appointed a committee to ascertain and report 
to that body whether there were existing in the 
Commonwealth any oppressive or ecclesiastical laws. 
The result of this action was an elaborate report 
setting forth the fact that quite a number of laws 
which seriously interfered with the exercise of re- 
ligious liberty were still prevailing. This report 
gave rise to a formal and respectful address to the 
legislature by the General Association, calling atten- 
tion to these oppressive and obnoxious laws, and 
with the transmission of the address was another 
inundation of petitions from the Baptists and Pres- 
byterians protesting most vehemently against the 
maintenance of a State Church. Against these 
were arrayed the petitions from the Episcopalians 
and Methodists, as the latter at that period co- 
operated with the Establishment. The presentation 
of these conflicting documents before the lawmakers 
of Virginia occasioned no little interest. Out of 
this came a law suspending the collection of taxes 
for the support of religious teachers. 1 While this 
gave additional elation to the Baptists, it served to 
embolden them for future aggression. 

Two meetings of the General Association were 
held during the year 1778. Encouraged by what 
had been accomplished at previous sessions, a com- 
mittee on " civil grievances " was again raised, re- 
sulting in the submission of a report remonstrating 
1 Hawks, Vol I., p. 139. 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 95 

most stoutly against a general assessment for the 
support of all denominations — a conciliatory meas- 
ure which had been set on foot by the supporters of 
the Establishment to prevent the total wreck of that 
fated institution. The report also strongly inveighed 
against the law granting to Episcopal clergymen the 
exclusive right, under the penalty of illegitimacy of 
issue, to perform the marriage ceremony. These 
solemn protests took the same course as those of the 
year before — they were transmitted to the legisla- 
ture by means of a most competent committee. It 
seems that the most that was accomplished by this 
Baptist delegation was favorable prospective action 
on the part of the. legislature ; for at the session of 
the General Association the following year, the 
draft of a bill establishing religious freedom was 
placed before the members of the General Associ- 
ation and it was generally approved. Here as 
before commissioners were appointed to visit the 
legislature, urging that body to legalize the mar- 
riages which, under the advice of Patrick Henry, 
dissenting ministers had celebrated. The result of 
this persistent activity of the Baptists was the 
enactment of a law repealing all laws authorizing 
the collection of taxes for the support of the clergy. 
Jefferson's estimate of this action was that "the 
Establishment of the Anglican Church was entirely 
put down." This was the result of an intense 
struggle on the part of the Baptists, which was pro- 
longed through three years. 



96 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Some of those who entered into co-operation 
with the Baptists when the issue was first joined, 
forsook them when the matter of general assessment 
was forced into the struggle. Dr. Hawks, the 
Episcopal church historian, sums up the struggle 
thus: 

In each successive meeting of the Legislature from 
1776 to 1779, this quaestio vexata was brought up for dis- 
cussion. . . In 1779, all things being ready for a final 
vote, the question was settled against the system of a 
general assessment, and the Establishment was finally 
put down. The Baptists were the principal promoters 
of this work and, in truth, aided more than any other 
denomination in its accomplishment. Their historian 
boasts that they alone were uniform in their efforts to 
destroy the system of an assessment and to introduce 
the plan of a voluntary contribution. Whether this be 
so or not, it is very certain that in the Associations of 
that sect, held from year to year, a prominent subject 
of discussion always was as to the best modes of carrying 
on war against the Establishment. 

The year following that of the overthrow of the 
Establishment, the enactment of a law legalizing 
marriage by dissenting ministers was procured. As 
has been suggested, Patrick Henry urged Baptist 
ministers to disregard the law in the celebration of 
the marriage ceremony with the expressed opinion 
that this was the speediest method of sweeping it 
from the statute books — and it proved true. It is 
a remarkable fact, however, that four years after the 
Declaration of Independence, oppressive laws were 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 97 

existing upon the pages of the colonial, or State, 
statute books. 

We have now reached a period (1780-81) when 
the South was overrun by British troops. The 
theatre of war in the Southern provinces was Vir- 
ginia and South Carolina. The well-known loyalty 
of Baptist preachers to the cause of freedom made 
them conspicuous objects of vengeance to the British 
commanders, and for some of these ministers hand- 1/ 
some rewards were offered by the royal generals. 
Baptist churches too were desecrated by being trans- 
formed into storage houses, temporary magazines, 
and field hospitals. Special delight seems to have 
characterized the seizure of these temples of worship 
and the reduction of them to hostile service. How- 
ever, this ceases to be a matter of surprise when it is 
borne in mind that Baptists were the most ardent of 
dissenters and the most belligerent of patriots. In 
Virginia and the Carolinas, during the two years, 
1780-81, the greatest demoralization prevailed 
among Baptist churches. Pastors were driven from 
their stations, flying sometimes for their lives, while 
many of them entered the army as chaplains or 
commanders ; and congregations were broken up 
and scattered in every possible direction. The 
Revolution was the occasion of the early occupation 
by Baptists of regions westward. This movement 
preceded the opening of the Revolution, because of 
the exactions of the crown officers, and continued 
throughout the years of the gigantic struggle. 



98 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

As we have seen, the utmost consistency was 
maintained by the Baptists of the South during 
the Revolutionary War. The struggle itself was 
only a more emphatic and sanguinary expression of 
the protests which had been made for a long period 
prior to the clash of arms. Throughout the years 
of the war Baptists were equally conspicuous in 
pressing the claims of liberty before legislative as- 
semblies and in resisting the invasions of the royal 
armies. Speaking of the aggressive spirit of the 
Baptists in Virginia during this stormy period, Dr. 
Hawks, the learned Episcopal historian, says of 
them : " After their final success in the matter of 
voluntary contribution, their next efforts were to 
procure a sale of the church lands, and their efforts 
never ceased until the glebe lands were sold." l 

The Baptist General Association of Virginia was 
most unremitting in its efforts to snap the last bond 
that united Church and State. During both ses- 
sions, held in the years 1782 and 1783, committees 
on u Civil Grievances " were appointed and the two 
items, still dear to the Establishment — the retention 
of glebe lands and the popular assessment for the 
support of ministers of all denominations — were 
made themes of firm remonstrance. The usual 
committee was appointed to wait upon the legisla- 
ture, but these measures were, for the time being, 
disregarded in view of the pressing demands of the 
political necessities of the time. In 1783 the Gen- 
1 Hawks, Vol. I., p. 53. 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 99 

eral Association entrusted the matter of the direc- 
tion of grievances to a General Committee composed 
of not more than four delegates from each district 
Association. This committee in 1784 renewed with 
vigor its protests before the legislature, arraigning 
before that body the proposed laws for general as- 
sessment, and the incorporation of religious societies, 
the vestry, and the marriage laws. A commissioner 
was deputed to bear the memorials of this committee 
to the legislature. This year, the General Assem- 
bly went so far as to pass a law authorizing all min- 
isters to officiate at marriages. 1 

At the preceding session of the General Assem- 
bly, in 1783, action upon the general assessment bill 
was postponed in order that an expression from the 
people might be had. This served to elicit the full 
strength and influence of the Baptist denomination 
in Virginia. It was fully realized what was in- 
volved in this popular expression and Baptist influ- 
ence was strained to its utmost tension. Under the 
direction and management of the General Commit- 
tee, the people in the different counties were urged 
to prepare petitions against the proposed assessment 
as being repugnant to the spirit of the gospel and 
the freedom of religion. The text of the resolution 
upon which such action was based, in Virginia, read 
as follows : 

Resolved, That it be recommended to those counties 
which have not yet prepared petitions to be presented to 

temple, pp. 34,69, 70. 



100 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the General Assembly against the engrossed bill for a 
general assessment for the support of the teachers of the 
Christian religion to proceed thereon as soon as possible ; 
that it is believed to be repugnant to the spirit of the 
gospel for the legislature thus to proceed in matters of 
religion ; that the holy author of our religion needs no 
such compulsive measures for the promotion of his 
cause ; that the gospel wants not the feeble arm of man 
for its support ; that it has made, and will again, 
through divine power, make its way against all opposi- 
tion ; that should the legislature assume the right of 
taxing the people for the support of the gospel, it will 
be destructive of religious liberty. 

The contest had been so ingeniously narrowed 
down by the opponents of the dissenters as to 
restrict the aggression almost entirely to the Bap- 
tists, who never stood more alone than now while 
they strove to defeat these adroit measures. Up to 
this time, the Baptists had been able to rely upon 
the friendly co-operation of the Presbyterians, but 
that communion was now divided. There were then 
arrayed against the Baptists, the Episcopalians, the 
Methodists, and a goodly portion of the Presby- 
terians. The specious and insiduous pretext of the 
opposition was that an assessment of the people 
should be made to provide a remedy for the alleged 
decay of morals and the general decline of religion. 

The issue was squarely joined when a petition 
from the Isle of Wight County appeared before the 
legislature praying that every one be compelled to 
contribute of his substance for the support of relig- 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 101 

ion. Fortunately for the Baptists, they enjoyed the 
co-operation of such eminent representatives as 
James Madison, George Mason, and Thomas Jeffer- 
son. But they were in turn opposed by such 
patriots as Patrick Henry, George Washington, 
Richard Henry Lee, and John Marshall. The 
general assessment bill was championed by Patrick 
Henry, who was pitted against James Madison, who 
appeared as the leader of the opposition to that ob- 
noxious measure. It was a struggle of giants. The 
discussion was vigorous and vehement. For a time, 
it seemed that the battle was lost to the Baptists. 
When the bill was ordered read the third time, that 
it might be put upon its passage, its advocates were 
confident. There was no hope left save in delay. 
Rallying the opposition to the measure, its managers 
succeeded in having action postponed to another 
session. This led to a representation of the matter 
to the masses of the people. Mr. Madison was 
foremost in calling popular attention to the subject 
in an admirable paper which was known as the 
" Memorial and Remonstrance/ y which was exten- 
sively circulated and read by thousands. Mean- 
while the advocates of assessment were by no 
means idle, for they circulated twenty-four copies of 
the bill in each county in the commonwealth. Upon 
the reassembling of the legislature in October, 1785, 
the great table in the Assembly hall almost sank 
under the weight of the petitions and remonstrances 
against the general assessment measure. Public 



102 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

protests were so overwhelming that the advocates of 
the measure surrendered without further struggle. 
Baptists had finally won. 

As the friend of soul-liberty, Jefferson seized 
upon the opportunity which was now presented for 
the submission of the following bill looking to the 
establishment of religious freedom. This was 
adopted December 16, 1785, and is still the funda- 
mental law of Virginia : 

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man 
shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious 
worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall he be 
enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body 
or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his re- 
ligious opinions or belief ; but that all men shall be free 
to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions 
in matters of religion, and that the same shall, in no 
wise, diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. 

There was not the slightest relaxation of effort on 
the part of the Baptists to wipe out the remaining 
traces of oppression and to thwart their enemies in 
efforts to procure such legislation as would entrench 
them in ecclesiastical supremacy. The General 
Committee now turned its attention to the opposition 
of the measure looking to the incorporation of the 
Episcopal society. At the meeting of this commit- 
tee held in 1786, it was resolved, 

That petitions ought to be drawn and circulated in the 
different counties and presented to the next General As- 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 103 

sembly, praying for a repeal of the Incorporating Act, 
and that the public property which is by that act vested 
in the Protestant Episcopal Church be sold, and the 
money applied to public use, and that Eeuben Ford and 
John Leland attend the next Assembly as agents in 
behalf of the General Committee. 

In this step the Presbyterians rejoined the Bap- 
tists, insisting that the act be repealed and the 
property distributed. In opposition to this pro- 
nounced expression, the Episcopal Convention 
recommended to the parishes throughout the State 
that petitions be prepared and presented offsetting 
the memorials of the Baptists and Presbyterians, but 
to no purpose; for on January 9, 1787, the law 
was repealed. The work to which the Baptists had 
applied themselves so assiduously for a long period 
was now almost completed, there being but one re- 
maining element of the original Establishment 
which demanded their attention, and that was the 
settlement of the glebe land question. Passing 
judgment upon this, the General Committee decided 
that the glebe lands were the property of the people 
— rightly belonged to the public — because bought 
with money collected by taxes from the people gen- 
erally. With this was coupled a solemn protest 
against its exclusive use by the minister of the 
parish in which the lands were located. This ques- 
tion had to be brought to the attention of the public 
in such way as to enable intelligent action to be 
taken. 



104 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Baptists were as industrious in the urgent prose- 
cution of the claims of this question as they had 
been with every other. In 1799 their efforts were 
rewarded by the passage of an act recognizing the 
principle that all property belonging to the Episco- 
pal Church devolved on the good people of the 
commonwealth. This was followed by an act in 
1802 ordering the sale of the glebes. In a sum- 
mary of these events, Dr. Hawks says : 

Persecution had taught the Baptists not to love the 
Establishment. In their Association they had calmly 
discussed the matter, and resolved on their course. In 
this course, they were consistent to the end ; and the 
war which they waged against the church was a war of 
extermination. They seem to have known no relentings, 
and their hostility never ceased for twenty-seven years. 1 

When the struggle began, there was little or no en- 
couragement to prosecute the work dear to the Bap- 
tists of the South. Almost hoping against hope be- 
cause of the formidable odds opposing them, the Bap- 
tists steadfastly pursued their claims, holding every 
inch of ground gained, and gathering new boldness 
with each advantage, until there was a complete 
severance of Church and State. They were equally 
active in the field and in the legislative chamber 
for the consummation of the single purpose of se- 
curing to the new republic the fullest freedom. The 
ratification of the Federal Constitution by the Vir- 
ginia Convention was largely due to the exertion 
i Hawks, Vol. L, pp. 137,138. 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 105 

and self-sacrifice of a Baptist minister, John Le- 
land. Mr. Madison being absent from the State on 
public business at the time when a representative 
was to be chosen, Leland was agreed upon as a can- 
didate for the position which would have been occu- 
pied by Madison in the Convention of 1788, which 
convention was to ratify or reject the national con- 
stitution. Upon his return to Virginia, Madison 
visited Leland and spent some time with him, 
which resulted in the withdrawal of the latter 
from the race in favor of the former. Mr. Madi- 
son's presence in the convention was most oppor- 
tune, as it is quite sure that the ratification of the 
constitution was due to that fact. The new consti- 
tution encountered the opposition of Patrick Henry 
who thought it " squinted toward monarchy." By 
reason of his personal popularity and splendid ora- 
tory he carried the people with him, and would 
have defeated ratification but for the influence of 
Madison. Commenting upon this, Senator John S. 
Barbour, of Virginia, asserts : 

That the credit of adopting the Constitution of the 
United States, properly belongs to a Baptist clergyman, 
formerly of Virginia, named Leland. If Madison had 
not been in the Virginia Convention, the constitution 
would not have been ratified, and as the approval of 
nine States was necessary to give effect to this instru- 
ment, and as Virginia was the ninth State, if it had 
been rejected by her, the constitution would have failed 
(the remaining States following her example), and it was 
through Elder Leland' s influence that Mr. Madison was 



106 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

elected to that Convention. It is unquestionable that 
Mr. Madison was elected through the efforts and resig- 
nation of John Leland, and it is all but certain that 
that act gave our country its famous constitution. 1 

The national Constitution, while generally accept- 
able, was not faultless. Naturally enough it was 
most rigidly examined by those who had struggled 
so long and sacrificed so much for the young nation 
just now in its swaddling clothes. At the session of 
the General Association of Virginia in 1788, the 
General Committee had submitted for consideration 
the question, " Whether the new Federal Constitu- 
tion, which had now lately made its appearance in 
public, made sufficient provision for the secure enjoy- 
ment of religious liberty ? " 

A unanimous opinion was reached by the commit- 
tee that it did not. This occurred three months pre- 
viously to its ratification by the State Convention, 
in doing which that body made certain reservations 
among which was that the liberty or right of no de- 
nomination can be abridged by the government. 
Certain essential rights, among which was that of 
liberty of conscience, cannot be abridged, restrained, 
or modified. That there might be no doubt attend- 
ant upon the action of the Virginia Convention, the 
General Committee held a consultation with Mr. 
Madison as to future action, and afterward addressed 
a communication to President Washington on the 
same subject. After reference to their struggles for 

1 Sprague, " Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit," p. 179. 






SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 107 

religious freedom, and after respectful allusion to 
the part taken by Washington in the contest, the 
Committee said : 

The want of efficacy in the confederation, the re- 
dundancy of laws and their partial administration in 
the States, called aloud for a new arrangement of our 
systems. The wisdom of the States for that purpose 
was collected in a grand convention, over which you, 
sir, had the honor to preside. A national government 
in all its parts was recommended as the only preserva- 
tion of the Union, which plan of government is now in 
actual operation. 

When the Constitution first made its appearance in 
Virginia we, as a Society, had unusual strugglings of 
mind, fearing that the liberty of conscience (dearer to 
us than property and life) was not sufficiently secured ; 
perhaps our jealousies were heightened on account of 
the usage we received in Virginia under the British 
government when mobs, bonds, fines, and prisons were 
our frequent repast. 

Convinced on the one hand that without an effective 
national government the States would fall into disunion 
and all the consequent evils ; on the other hand, it was 
feared we might be accessory to some religious oppres- 
sion should any one Society in the union preponderate 
all the rest. But amidst all the inquietudes of mind 
our consolation arose from this consideration, the plan 
must be good, for it bears the signature of a tried, trusty 
friend ; and if religious liberty is rather insecure in the 
Constitution, "the administration will prevent all op- 
pression, for a Washington will preside." According to 
our wishes the unanimus voice of the Union has called 
you, sir, from your beloved retreat to launch forth again 
into the faithless seas of human affairs to guide the 



108 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

helm of the States. Should the horrid evils that have 
been so pestiferous in Asia and Europe — faction, ambi- 
tion, war, perfidy, fraud, and persecutions for conscience' 
sake — ever approach the borders of our happy nation, 
may the name and administration of our beloved Presi- 
dent, like the radiant source of day, scatter all those 
dark clouds from the American hemisphere. 

This letter to Washington was the wise and 
timely product of John Leland, a man of fertile 
resource, calm judgment, courageous disposition, 
and of ripe piety. 

In reply to the letter, of which the foregoing is 
an extract, President Washington wrote : 

If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension 
that the Constitution framed by the convention where I 
had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the 
religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I 
would never have placed my signature to it ; and if I 
could now conceive that the general government might 
ever be so administered as to render the liberty of con- 
science insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no 
one would be more zealous than myself to establish ef- 
fectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny 
and every species of religious persecution. For you 
doubtless remember I have often expressed my senti- 
ments that any man conducting himself as a good citi- 
zen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious 
opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity 
according to the dictates of his own conscience. 

While I recollect with satisfaction that the religious 
Society of which you are members have been through- 
out America uniformly and almost unanimously the 
firm friends to civil liberty and the persevering pro- 



SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION 109 

moters of our glorious revolution, I cannot hesitate to 
believe that they will be faithful supporters of a free yet 
efficient general government. Under this pleasing ex- 
pectation I rejoice to assure them that they may rely 
upon my best wishes and endeavors to advance their 
prosperity. In the meantime be assured, gentlemen, 
that I entertain a proper sense of your fervent supplica- 
tion to God for my temporal and eternal happiness. 
I am, gentlemen, 

Your most obedient servant, 

* George Washington. 

The outcome of this correspondence was the 
submission by James Madison, in the House of 
Representatives, of the first amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States. Although it en- 
countered strong opposition at first, it was finally 
passed by the House and afterward approved by 
two-thirds of the States and became a law. The 
Baptists have all along insisted that the credit of 
this amendment belongs to them. It was for this 
that the appeal was made to Washington, who 
promptly recognized the wisdom of it. The request 
commended itself to the judgment of Madison also, 
and gave to him an additional opportunity to endear 
himself to the Baptists of the South by submitting 
the amendment and securing its passage. 

The adoption of the first amendment to the Con- 
stitution should have ended the struggle ; but it 
was not until 1798 that all the barriers were swept 
away and dissenters were admitted to equal priv- 
ileges with the Episcopalians of America. 



CHAPTER IV 

DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 

IN 1770 the Baptists of the South were, in point 
of numbers, quite a weak folk. At that period 
there were but few church organizations in the 
States now covered by the territory of the South. 
While a few of these were strong, relatively speak- 
ing, the most of them were feeble. Of the seventy 
Baptist churches reported for 1770, according to a 
recent author, 1 only seven were accounted as existing 
in the South. There were, however, known to be 
more than that. Still there were perhaps not so 
many as ten thousand Baptists in the United States 
when the Revolution began. The effect of that 
great struggle was to disperse the Baptist churches 
of the Southern provinces. Baptists were intensely 
enlisted in the cause of freedom, and almost none 
of the churches observed stated seasons of worship. 
For the most part, the pastors were enlisted as chap- 
lains, or as soldiers in the ranks. 

After the close of the war, however, there was a 
speedy reaction. Differences were forgotten in the 
single aim to unify the denomination in order to 

1 H. K. Carroll, ll.d., in "The Religious Forces of the United 
States," p. 25. 
110 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 111 

give a lasting effect to the achievements wrought. 
The sufferings and struggles which all had under- 
gone in common, served to weld them the more 
easily after the gigantic contest had closed. This 
was illustrated by the easy fusion of the " Separate " 
and " Regular" Baptists of Virginia in 1787. 
This was the signal for union throughout the prov- 
inces, so that within a few years after the fusion in 
Virginia the denomination presented a united front. 
This spirit of unity which, in turn, was the result of 
that singleness of aim for the principle for which 
the Baptists of the South in common suffered and 
contended, was the fountain source of the denomi- 
national expansion with which the period following 
the Revolution was signalized. A grateful senti- 
ment everywhere prevailed because of the achieve- 
ment of liberty. Places of worship which had 
long been desecrated by the vile uses to which they 
were subjected by the enemy, were venerated more 
than ever before. Meeting-houses were rebuilt 
where they had been demolished, repaired where 
they had been damaged ; and congregations gathered 
again with alacrity and gratitude, and resumed, 
without fear of interruption, the worship of God. 
Only the sufferers from persecution could realize 
how precious was the boon of freedom, and it is but 
natural that these people should be frequently found 
at their places of worship. 

The beneficent reaction from the turbulent period 
of the Revolution was favorable to the production 



112 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

of the grateful feelings which prevailed universally 
among the Baptists of the South. This sponta- 
neous spirit which dictated an equally spontaneous 
worship, was the starting point of the phenomenal 
growth which characterized the denomination during 
the subsequent periods throughout the Southern 
States. 

From this prevalent condition of the Baptist 
churches inevitably sprang a revival which not only 
greatly augmented the membership of the churches 
already existing, but rapidly multiplied the number 
of churches themselves. It seems that as early as 
1784 there were in Virginia alone one hundred and 
fifty-one churches and fourteen thousand nine hun- 
dred and sixty members, and eight years later the 
number of churches had increased to two hundred 
and eighteen, with a membership of twenty thou- 
sand four hundred and forty-three. The revival 
wave swept into the opening years of the nineteenth 
century, so that in 1810-12 we find Virginia with 
two hundred and ninety-two churches and thirty-five 
thousand six hundred and sixty-five members. 
These numbers are furnished as to the resident 
membership of Virginia Baptist churches, although 
Semple estimates that between 1791 and 1810 fully 
one-fourth of the Baptists of Virginia removed to 
Kentucky. Notwithstanding that the Revolutionary 
period found the Baptists of the North far out- 
numbering those of the South, in 1814 there were 
nearly twice as many members in the Baptist 



DENOMINATIONAL. EXPANSION 113 

churches of Virginia as in those of New York, and 
there were many more in Virginia than there were 
in all the New England States together. 

The same spirit of revivalism extended into 
North Carolina ; but it was not until 1800 that the 
most memorable revival in the annals of that State 
occurred. James McGready, a Scotch-Irish Pres- 
byterian preacher, began a revival in North Caro- 
lina in the first years of the nineteenth century, 
which shook the State to its center, and which was 
soon felt in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. The 
return of peace had brought to most of the Carolina 
churches many demoralizing practices which re- 
quired sturdy heroism to attack and expose. From 
the labors of this wonderful man, the Baptists de- 
rived immense increase to the membership of their 
churches throughout North Carolina. 

Attention has already been called to the organi- 
zation of the earliest churches in North Carolina, 
among which there were many struggling interests. 
In 1784 we find in the State forty-two churches, 
with a membership of three thousand two hundred 
and seventy-six; eight years later, in 1792, the 
number of churches had increased to ninety-four 
and the membership to seven thousand five hun- 
dred and three. The results of the McGready re- 
vival are manifest in the figures furnished for 1812, 
for then we find two hundred and four churches in 
the State, with a membership of twelve thousand 
five hundred and sixty-seven. As the churches of 

H 



114 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Kentucky were recruited from those of Virginia, so 
the churches of Tennessee derived their strength 
from those of North Carolina. 

Some of the churches of South Carolina were 
almost extinguished by the Eevolution. The part 
borne in the great struggle by the leader of the 
South Carolina Baptists, Oliver Hart, in arousing 
the patriotism of the colonists and in inciting them 
against the royal forces, so aroused the wrath of the 
British commanders that on the approach of their 
armies to Charleston, Pastor Hart was advised by 
his friends to seek a safe retreat. He made his way 
northward to Hopewell, New Jersey, and never 
again returned South. His church, which had so 
long been a center of evangelistic influence in 
southern South Carolina, was almost destroyed. 
With the restoration of peace, Mr. Hart was re- 
called to the pastorate of the church, but declined. 
Dr. Richard Furman was then called from the high 
hills of the Santee to Charleston, where he entered 
upon a career of marvelous usefulness on October 
18, 1787. The membership was easily rallied and 
Charleston again became a controlling center of in- 
fluence to the Baptist denomination in the South. 
The churches throughout South Carolina shared in 
the revival spirit which was now prevailing through- 
out all the Southern settlements. McGready, the 
noted revivalist, visited the State in 1802 and fol- 
lowed up the work which had been accomplished in 
North Carolina. Immense audiences thronged 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 115 

upon his preaching, variously estimated from four 
to eight thousand, drawn together from a group of 
districts, and even from many counties in Georgia. 
As was true in the West, here were the remarkable 
physical demonstrations attendant upon the revival 
meetings of the period. Sudden loss of strength, 
swoons, outcries, groans, involuntary but violent 
spasmodic jerkings of the body — all these mani- 
festations were witnessed during these remarkable 
meetings in the Carolinas. 

The growth of the denomination in South Caro- 
lina is indicated by the fact that in 1784 there were 
in the State twenty-seven churches, with a member- 
ship of One thousand six hundred and twenty ; by 
1782, or within a period of eight years, the num- 
ber of churches was almost trebled, there being then 
seventy churches, with a membership of four thou- 
sand one hundred and sixty-seven; in 1812 the 
churches numbered one hundred and fifty-four, and 
the total membership was eleven thousand three 
hundred and twenty-five. 

Only a passing notice has been given to Dr. Rich- 
ard Furman, who became pastor at Charleston in 
1787. Nothing could have been more fortunate 
than his settlement in the Charleston pastorate just 
at the time that he assumed the care of the church. 
Just rallying from the ill effects of the war, and 
realizing again its strength, for a long period the 
center of denominational influence in the State, 
with its opportunities and possibilities greatly in- 



116 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

creased by the changed conditions induced by the 
return of peace, the church at Charleston needed a 
master-hand, directed by consummate prudence, to 
grasp the situation and wield effectively the agen- 
cies within reach. These elements were combined 
in Richard Furman, who readily became the leader 
of Southern Baptists, and was the peer of any man 
in the denomination of the entire country. He was 
without university training, but was endowed with 
a high order of intellect, which was studiously cul- 
tivated by self-application until he became one of 
the most cultured men of the period. His tastes 
led him to retain the dress of the colonial gentle- 
man long after it had been generally abandoned. 
He never failed to appear in his pulpit with the 
gown and bands. Favored with fortune, he made 
a liberal and judicious use of his means and wielded 
a commanding influence throughout the State. The 
subsequent prosperity of the churches of South 
Carolina is, in large measure, due to the influence 
of Richard Furman, Sr., D. D. 

The first churches constituted in Kentucky were, 
for a considerable period, in a sluggish condition. 
Though the population had increased to twenty or 
thirty thousand, and though eight Baptist churches 
had been in existence for years, still up to 1784 no 
one had been baptized in Kentucky. Assiduous 
missionary labors and earnest preaching seem to 
have availed nothing in the way of quickening 
spirituality in the churches or of arousing anxiety 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 117 

among the masses. But a revival was experienced 
in 1785 which drew the Baptist churches of that 
State into closer union, for no community of inter- 
est had up to this time bound them together. Two 
years later John Gano removed from New York to 
Kentucky, and contributed greatly to the efficient 
organization of the Baptists of the State. He was 
readily accorded the position of leadership in the 
denomination and was profoundly venerated to the 
close of his life. 

Again, in 1789, a revival of profound and wide- 
reaching power prevailed throughout Kentucky. 
This revival was not restricted, however, to that 
State, but was prevalent throughout the upper States 
of the South, especially in Virginia. In some por- 
tions of Kentucky it lasted through a period of three 
years, and had the happy effect of blending the de- 
nomination into greater unity and of giving it greater 
efficiency. During the period of this remarkable 
spiritual demonstration thousands were baptized and 
many new churches were constituted. This revival 
was followed by what is known as " The Great Re- 
vival" of 1800, in which nearly all the States of 
the South and West largely shared. This was the 
revival which began under James McGready in 
North Carolina, and which swept over the Southern 
and Western States and Territories and shortly 
changed the aspect of religious society. All oppo- 
sition seemed to yield to the advancing tide of 
spirituality. Haunts of evil were closed, and the 



118 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

obscenity and profanity so characteristic then of 
the wayside inns and other places of popular resort 
gave place to prayer and praise. The multitudes 
of a given region would concentrate at the same 
point, spread their tents, and establish a "camp 
meeting." Persons rode on horseback and in wagons 
a distance of a hundred miles sometimes to attend 
these extraordinary gatherings. At a point near 
Paris it was believed that there were concentrated 
at one time as many as twenty thousand people. 
One of the occasions of worship is thus described 
by an eye-witness : 

Here were collected all elements calculated to affect 
the imagination. The spectacle presented at night was 
one of the wildest grandeur. The glare of the blazing 
campfires falling on a dense assemblage of heads simul- 
taneously bowed in adoration and reflected back from 
long ranges of tents upon every side ; hundreds of candles 
and lamps suspended among the trees, together with 
numerous torches flashing to and fro, throwing an uncer- 
tain light upon the tremulous foliage and giving an ap- 
pearance of dim and indefinite extent to the depth of 
the forest ; the solemn chanting of hymns swelling and 
falling on the night wind ; the impassioned exhortations ; 
the earnest prayers, the sobs, shrieks, or shouts, bursting 
from persons under intense agitation of mind ; the sud- 
den spasms which seized upon scores and unexpectedly 
dashed them to the ground, all conspired to invest the 
scene with terrific interest and to work up the feelings to 
the highest pitch of excitement. 1 

Here were the most marvelous manifestations of 

1 " History Presbyterian Church," p. 137. 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 119 

physical excitement connected with that great move- 
ment. It is said that during a given service three 
thousand persons were known to have been pros- 
trated at one time upon the ground in an apparently 
lifeless condition. Others were thrown into violent 
convulsions which were popularly called " the jerks," 
while others rolled upon the ground or ran franti- 
cally here and there ; others still, danced and sang ; 
while still others barked like so many dogs. While 
the revival was largely directed by the Presbyterian 
ministry during its earlier stages, the Baptists were 
equally the recipients of its advantages. In 1790 
we find in Kentucky forty-two churches, with an 
aggregate membership of three thousand one hun- 
dred and five ; in 1800, at the beginning of " The 
Great Revival," there were one hundred and six 
churches, with a membership of five thousand one 
hundred and nineteen ; in 1803 there were two hun- 
dred and nineteen churches, with a membership of 
fifteen thousand four hundred and ninety-five. One 
of the most salutary results of the series of revivals 
in Kentucky was the obliteration of the trifling dif- 
ferences which existed between the Separate and 
Regular Baptists. Several attempts had been made 
to bring about this fusion in Kentucky, but it was 
not consummated until 1801. 

The Baptists of East Tennessee retained their 
associational connection with the Sandy Creek Asso- 
ciation of North Carolina until 1786, when they 
entered into the constitution of the Holston Associ- 



120 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ation, which at first embraced only seven churches. 
This region shared in the gracious results of the re- 
vival of 1 800-1 803, so that six years after its consti- 
tution the Holston Association included thirty-six 
churches, with a total membership of two thousand 
five hundred. From this, in consequence of its 
overgrown condition, was set off the Tennessee As- 
sociation. Baptists did not become permanent in 
Middle Tennessee until during the Revolution, and 
about the year 1780. In 1791, Ambrose Dudley 
and John Taylor rode on horseback from Ken- 
tucky, a distance of two hundred miles, through an 
uninhabited region, to assist in the constitution of 
the Tennessee Church at the mouth of Sulphur 
Fork River. For three years this church stood a 
solitary outpost of evangelization, with no other 
nearer than one hundred miles. But when in 1794 
White's Creek Church was planted in Middle Ten- 
nessee, this was the signal for an advance in the Bap- 
tist cause. The last-named church emigrated bod- 
ily from North Carolina under the lead of Elder 
Dorris and settled at the source of Sulphur Fork 
River. It appears that the removal of Mr. Dorris 
to Middle Tennessee proved to be a misfortune to 
the struggling cause in that region, for his presence 
was a source of disturbance alike to his church and 
to the Association of which it became a member. 
It was in this portion of Tennessee that the rem- 
nants of a disorganized church, which had been 
formed in 1765, were found. This original organi- 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 121 

zation had been forced to disband in 1774 because 
of the atrocities of the Indians in that region. In 
1797 there were five churches in Middle Tennessee 
in such proximity as to enable them to constitute 
the Mero Association. Subsequent to this the 
Cumberland Association was formed, which had in 

1806 a membership of thirty-nine churches. The 
Elk River Association was created in 1806. In 
1808 a sufficient number of churches withdrew from 
the Cumberland to form the Red River Association, 
and again, in 1810, another instalment severed their 
membership with the Cumberland and constituted 
the Concord Association. The expansion of the de- 
nomination in Tennessee is indicated by the follow- 
ing statistics : 

In 1784 there were in the Territory of Tennes- 
see six churches, with a membership of less than 
four hundred ; in 1792 there were twenty-one 
churches, with a membership of nine hundred ; in 
1812 the churches had increased to one hundred 
and fifty-six with a total membership of eleven 
thousand three hundred and twenty-five. About 

1807 Baptists had extended southward into the 
Alabama Territory, where in the settlements, both 
in the northern and southern ends of the Territory, 
there was steady development. The denomination 
in Alabama did not begin to grow rapidly until after 
the battle of New Orleans and the consequent peace 
with Great Britain. With the close of that struggle 
and the attendant cessation of Indian hostilities in 



122 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the South, immigration flowed rapidly into Alabama 
from the older States toward the east as well as 
from Tennessee. 

But little progress was made by the Baptists of 
Georgia until after the Revolution. From Tucka- 
seeking, as a common center of his labors, Botsford 
4 extended his evangelistic efforts up and down the 
Savannah River, sometimes preaching in Georgia 
aud again in South Carolina. On the Georgia side 
his labors extended as far north as the Kiokee 
settlement, and as far south as Ebenezer. Mr. 
Botsford was ordained to the full work of the min- 
istry in 1773, by Oliver Hart and Francis Pelot. 
For years he was a most zealous and efficient mis- 
sionary in the populous settlements of Georgia and 
South Carolina. When in 1780 Mr. Hart fled be- 
fore the advancing British, Mr. Botsford accompa- 
nied him as far north as Virginia, but returned 
after the restoration of peace. The four or five 
struggling churches of Georgia might have become 
extinct during the stormy period of the war but 
for the heroism of Daniel Marshall. He seems to 
have been left alone by Abraham Marshall, his son, 
Silas Mercer, and Edward Botsford, all of whom 
sought safety in retreat during the hottest period of 
the Revolution. But defying all danger, Daniel 
Marshall labored on as indefatigably and serenely as 
if universal peace prevailed. To the three churches 
of Kiokee, Botsford, and Red Creek, which were 
constituted previous to the war, were added those of 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 123 

Little Brier Creek and Fishing Creek, which were 
formed by Daniel Marshall during the Revolution. 
There was still one other church, the name of which 
is not now known, which was situated on Buckhead 
Creek, the pastor of which, Matthew Moore, was a 
loyalist. During the Revolution the membership 
was scattered and the church became practically 
extinct. In 1787 it was revived through the 
efforts of Revs. James Matthews and Benjamin 
Davis, who gave it the name of Buckhead Creek 
Church. 

With these few organizations as a nucleus, ex- 
tending in a line up and down the Savannah River, 
the denomination began its marvelous development 
in Georgia after the declaration of peace with Eng- 
land. To Daniel Marshall more than to any other, 
are Georgia Baptists indebted for the successful 
planting of churches of our faith in the first period 
of their history. He was an ideal organizer, and 
was unremitting in his efforts to develop the churches 
of which he had the oversight. Wisely calling into 
exercise the gifts of the membership of a church, 
he developed them as fully as the prevailing con- 
ditions allowed. Embryonic indications were quickly 
observed by the wise pastor, and gifts were nour- 
ished into the fullest usefulness possible. From 
such spiritual tutelage came some of the brightest 
names of Georgia Baptist history — Alexander Scott, 
Sanders Walker, Samuel Cartledge, Silas Mercer, 
Abraham Marshall, Loveless Savidge, Samuel New- 



124 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ton, William Davis, Jeremiah Reeves, Joseph 
Baker, and others. Through the active missionary 
labors of such men, the denomination entered upon 
its new career in the years which followed the 
Revolution. 1 

The organization of churches into Associations 
was a fruitful means of expansion. This was nota- 
bly true with the early churches of Georgia. In 
1784 a meeting preliminary to the constitution of 
the Georgia Association was held, though the body 
was not formally organized until the following year. 
The stimulation resulting from the annual gathering 
of such bodies in these early times was shown in 
the multiplication of churches within their territory. 
For instance, in Wilkes County alone, within the 
territory of the Georgia Association, there were 
organized twenty-two churches during the brief 
period of six years. By the year 1794, ten years 
after its constitution, the Georgia Association con- 
tained fifty-six churches, several of which were in 
South Carolina. The overgrowth of this body sug- 
gested the formation of the Hepzibah Association, 
and later still of the Sarepta, both of which were 
created from churches drawn from the parent organi- 
zation. This was a period of enthusiastic progress 

1 Beginning with one Baptist church in 1772, there were in 
Georgia two in 1773; three, in 1774; four, in 1777; seven, in 
1780; eight, in 1782; nine, in 1784; eleven, in 1785: fifteen, in 
1786 ; twenty, in 1787 ; thirty-three, in 1788 ; thirty-five, in 1789 ; 
forty-two, in 1790, and fifty-three, with a membership of nearly 
four thousand five hundred, in 1794. 






DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 125 

to Georgia Baptists. The State was fortunate in 
having superior leaders from the beginning. Daniel 
Marshall, a man of rare powers with the masses, 
having died in 1784, his mantle of leadership fell 
upon Silas Mercer, a man of sterner qualities than 
his predecessor, but a preacher of great power and 
influence with the people. Mercer had removed 
from North Carolina to Georgia in 1775, and was 
trained for his life-work through the silent agency 
of Daniel Marshall. Mercer was cordially and 
ably sustained by Abraham Marshall. 

In 1786 Rev. Jeremiah Walker made his appear- 
ance in Georgia after his deposition from the min- 
istry in Virginia for unbecoming conduct. Just 
before leaving Virginia, however, he had been re- 
stored to the ministry. He was accompanied to 
Georgia by Mr. Tinsley, who had been his fellow- 
sufferer of persecution by imprisonment in Virginia. 
The early churches of Georgia had been singularly 
free from the taint of heterodoxy and had entered 
upon a career of great promise when Walker and 
Tinsley appeared upon the scene as the ardent ad- 
vocates of Arminianism. They found ready sym- 
pathizers in two Baptist preachers, Matthew Talbot 
and Nathaniel Hall. Walker was a man of much 
popular dash, was able, and possessed of a fascinat- 
ing oratory. With the assistance of those already 
named in this connection, he undertook to promul- 
gate Arminian views in Georgia. In the very out- 
set these men encountered the most obstinate resis- 



126 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

tance, accompanied by affectionate remonstrance on 
the part of the leaders of the denomination, with 
the hope of recovering the Arminian advocates 
from their error. For a period this was the occa- 
sion of much disturbance. Finally, when the dis- 
orderly elements refused to yield, they were finally 
expelled and order restored. Walker soon after died 
and his associates passed from public notice. Less 
toleration was accorded the presentation of Arminian 
views, perhaps, because the Methodists were contest- 
ing every inch of territory with the Baptists in press- 
ing their claims upon public attention. 

Among those who were becoming conspicuous for 
denominational leadership at that period was Sanders 
Walker, who was perhaps the first Baptist preacher 
ever ordained in Georgia. He was a Virginian by 
birth, but was attracted westward by the alluring 
reports prevalent in the other States of the advan- 
tages enjoyed in the newer territory of the West. 
He became a tower of strength in his adopted State. 

Still farther westward, in Mississippi, the terri- 
tory was rapidly occupied after the close of the 
war of 1812. But little denominational progress 
was made before that time. The conglomerate char- 
acter of the population, coupled with the hostility 
of the Indians, forbade rapid headway until order 
was established. In the earlier years of the present 
century New Hope Church was constituted in Adams 
County ; Bethel Church, in Bayou Sara ; and New 
Providence and Ebenezer, in Amite. 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 127 

In briefly reviewing the causes which produced 
this phenomenal growth of the Baptists, we may 
name as a prime factor the reaction from the perse- 
cution to which they were subjected during a large 
portion of the preceding century. This strain of 
long-continued persecution made the reaction one of 
great force and energy. Such harsh treatment not 
only gave a tremendous rebound to the persecuted, 
but it elicited a popular sympathy, to which was 
added an eager interest aroused by the uncurbed 
fervor of the preaching of the Baptist ministry. 
The conjunction of two such genial elements largely 
accounts for the rapidity of denominational expan- 
sion after the return of peace. 

Another factor which operated to bring about 
this great spiritual upheaval was the missionary zeal 
of the early Baptist ministry of the South. The 
world never witnessed more consecrated earnestness 
than was displayed by these rude preachers of the 
early days of the denomination in the Southern 
States. Most of them came from the walks of 
common life, and were, for the most part, tillers 
of the soil. They would labor upon their farms 
until near the close of the week, studying their 
plain English Bibles at night, and at the proper 
time would start to their appointments, often more 
than forty miles away. Not infrequently in pioneer 
regions, where the trail of the Indian was the only 
means of uniting the different settlements, these 
hardy men would encounter streams swollen and 



128 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

bridgeless, but undaunted would swiin to the oppo- 
site side and prosecute their journeys with alacrity. 
Their familiarity with the needs of the masses would 
enable them readily to meet the demands of every 
occasion. The popular esteem excited by their dis- 
interested zeal made the utterances of these plain, 
unlettered men almost oracular. Disturbances of 
whatever character in the new settlements were 
often submitted to the calm decision of the pious 
Baptist missionaries, and the conclusions to which 
they were led by their rugged sense of right, not 
only enabled them to adjust difficulties, but gave to 
them a wonderful hold upon the popular mind and 
heart. 

The strength and compass of this influence were 
increased by the fact that the labors of these men 
were uncompensated. Under the stress of existing 
conditions this was unavoidable. Through self-ab- 
negation alone could the gospel be given to the rude 
settlers upon the frontier, as they were frequently 
subjected, for the first few years, to great privation. 
This unrequited labor gave to the early preacher 
unusual liberty and plainness of speech which he 
exercised without stint. Though advantageous at 
this time, this failure to exact compensation from 
the early churches proved a barrier in after years to 
church development in the South. When, as the 
result of such unflagging zeal and unremitting labor, 
churches began to multiply throughout the early 
settlements of the South and Associations began to 



DENOMINATIONAL EXPANSION 129 

be organized, evangelization became more system- 
atic and effective. A Baptist organization, whether 
it was a church or a district Association, became at 
once an evangelistic center, and so surely as an un- 
evangelized district lay within reach, just so surely 
did it fall under the influence of the progressive 
home missionary of the Baptists. 

Following up their success by preaching Sunday 
after Sunday under the difficulties and embarrass- 
ments already named, these men of fiery zeal would 
quit their homes for weeks together, when their crops 
would no longer demand rigid attention, and preach 
day after day to assembled hundreds. 

More rapid headway was gained by the Baptists 
of the South in the periods immediately succeeding 
the Revolution, by reason of the thorough accord 
of the polity of Baptist churches with the genius of 
the government and the republican spirit of the 
masses. If Baptists did much toward achieving 
American independence, the consummation of that 
event in turn did much for their denominational 
expansion. The reaction from royal dominion and 
from everything that pertained to the crown was 
terrible, and out of this condition sprang the re- 
vivals which swept in succession over the South for 
more than twenty-five years after the close of the 
Revolutionary War. 

The unremitting endeavors of the Baptist minis- 
try of this early period were not a little stimulated 
by the presence of Methodist circuit riders in all 

i 



130 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the settlements of the South. Bold, active, enter- 
prising, and aggressive, these early Methodist min- 
isters ardently disputed every inch of ground with 
the Baptist missionary. During the Revolution the 
Methodists had not proved steadfast as dissenters, 
and in the efforts of the Baptists to undermine the 
Establishment, they were oftener than otherwise in 
sympathy with the supporters of the crown. This 
operated with no little effect against the Methodists 
after the close of hostilities, but they were unchecked 
in sturdy effort. Baptists were more than a match 
for them in the rural districts, but in the centers of 
population the Methodists, for a period, gained a 
firmer footing. Popularity of method, coupled with 
an accommodation of requirement for church-mem- 
bership, did much to favor the progress of the Metho- 
dists in the growing towns of the South. There is 
little doubt that the aggressive front of this Revo- 
lutionary rival in the field of evangelism contributed 
in no small measure to the welding together of the 
two divisions of the Baptists of the South. 






CHAPTER Y 

EDUCATIONAL WORK 

THE phenomenal growth of the Baptist denomi- 
nation in the South in the early periods of its 
history, suggested to a few of the most prominent 
among them the importance of providing for a better 
equipped ministry with which to organize and direct 
this great host which had enlisted under the de- 
nominational banner. With rare exceptions the 
ministry of the Baptists of the South at this period 
was composed of illiterate, but earnest and devout 
men. Among them were a few educated leaders 
who were the first to formulate methods by which 
the intellectual standard of the Baptist pulpit might 
be elevated. On account of several particulars this 
was a most formidable undertaking, which was as- 
sumed by a few courageous spirits, for it was mani- 
fest from the outset that such a praiseworthy enter- 
prise would be resisted by the unlearned ministry. 
Some among the illiterate ministers seemed to re- 
gard such a suggestion as a reflection upon their 
ability to preach ; others considered it as an im- 
pious hint that the divine call to the ministry was 
not complete without the patchwork of men ; while 
others still looked upon such a proposal as a dispo- 

131 



132 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

sition to pander to individual and public pride. 
Thus it came to pass that a suggestion which was 
capable of the greatest good became, in the hands 
of the unenlightened and prejudiced ministry, a 
cudgel to be used against pious and progressive 
leaders. 

Themselves illiterate, these very preachers, many 
of them in their opposition, found hearty support 
in the great uneducated masses which had been 
brought into the churches. 

The Baptist denomination in the South, after the 
close of the extraordinary revival periods which dis- 
tinguished the early years of the century, was a 
great unorganized, undisciplined mass, the dominat- 
ing purpose of which seemed to be to do just as 
they might wish. If they were to accomplish the 
results for which, as a denomination, they seemed 
providentially destined, then efficient organization 
was necessary. But such organization was not pos- 
sible without intelligent direction, and intelligent 
direction must necessarily begin with the local pas- 
toral leaders. Thus the more progressive of the 
Baptist ministry thought in the beginning of the 
present century. But how was such a project to 
become operative when it was resisted largely by 
the class of men whom it sought to benefit ? These 
men, sustained by the rank and file of the denomin- 
tion, placed almost insuperable barriers in the way 
of this disinterested plan of denominational pro- 
gress. 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 133 

There was nothing of malice in the opposition 
shown by an unschooled ministry against intellect- 
ual development. Men were never sincerer than 
they. Herein lay the greatest factor of strength 
on the part of the opposition. Ignorance is the 
parent of prejudice, and prejudice is the foe of pro- 
gress. United with religion this combination, in 
which religion usually forms a subordinate part, is 
generally resolved into a sublimated superstition. 
These honest, though unlettered men, ignorant of 
the laws of mental development and regardless of 
the total absence of divine promise to support their 
views, insisted that if called of God to preach there 
would be supernatural provision for the duty as 
occasion might require. This they honestly be- 
lieved and earnestly advocated in the presence of 
assembled multitudes as ignorant as their reputed 
leaders themselves, if not more so. Undaunted by 
these grave odds and realizing the immensity of 
their undertaking, such men as Furman and Pelot, 
of South Carolina, and Holcombe and Mercer, of 
Georgia, together with a few others throughout the 
South, resolved upon the creation of means for the 
better equipment of the Baptist ministry. Without 
concert of action these men, in widely separated 
States, were moved by the same impulse because the 
conditions were everywhere the same throughout 
the States of the South. As a beginning, means 
were raised with which to purchase books, and 
wherever practicable ministers were gathered into 



134 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

classes and taught. In the course of time these 
small beginnings were suggestive of ampler pro- 
visions and finally of schools for the better training 
of the Baptist ministry. From these crude orig- 
inal plans grew the denominational colleges now to 
be found in all the Southern States. 

The earliest associational and conventional organ- 
izations in the South were founded upon a dual idea, 
denominational extension and the education of the 
ministry. This work began as far back as the pas- 
toral administration of Oliver Hart in Charleston 
prior to the Revolution, for it was he who first 
moved in the matter of constituting a distinct As- 
sociation. Into this original organization three 
churches entered — the First Church of Charleston, 
Ashley River, and Welsh Neck. This action took 
place as early as 1751. The chief agents in this 
progressive movement were the pastors of the 
churches named — Oliver Hart, John Stevens, and 
Philip James. Early the following year they were 
greatly reinforced by Francis Pelot, pastor of Eu- 
haw Church, who was a man of ample means, for 
according to Morgan Edwards, he " owned three 
islands and about three thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-five acres on the continent, with slaves and 
stock in abundance." 

In 1775 John Gano became an evangelist of the 
Charleston Association. One of the chief cares 
with which he was charged was that of seeking 
out gifted young men called of God to preach and 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 135 

to recommend them to the Charleston Association. 
In 1756 an educational fund was raised by the 
Charleston Association amounting to one hundred 
and thirty- three pounds. Among those who be- 
came the beneficiaries of this fund were Evan Pugh, 
Samuel Stillman, and Edmund Botsford. These 
early South Carolina pastors were liberal contribu- 
tors to Rhode Island College during the presidency 
of Dr. Manning, with whom Mr. Hart was inti- 
mately acquainted. 

These incipient efforts in education were cut short 
by the Revolution. Manifestly the least possible 
in educational matters had been done in the South 
when the period of hostile agitation came. Con- 
sidering that which had been accomplished, it is re- 
markable that denominational progress in the South- 
ern States up to the close of the Revolution was 
due to the work of an uneducated ministry. The 
success achieved during these trying times by men 
untrained in the schools remained for a long period 
a barrier to enlarged ministerial and pastoral devel- 
opment. 

In 1788 President Manning addressed a letter to 
the Virginia Baptists through the general commit- 
tee, urging them to take steps to establish a semi- 
nary of learning. The only action taken, in conse- 
quence of this communication, was the adoption of 
a resolution to appoint a committee " to forward the 
business respecting a seminary of learning." The 
matter dragged its slow length along until 1793, 



136 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

when it was revived and committed to the hands of 
Rev. John Williams and Mr. Thomas, who sub- 
mitted a plan which was at the time deemed prac- 
ticable, but was subsequently dropped, the question 
being dismissed. The subject was revived in 1809, 
when it seems that the only two subjects before the 
General Meeting of Correspondence of the Virginia 
Baptists were " the religious education of children 
and the establishment of some seminary or public 
school to assist young preachers to acquire a liter- 
ary knowledge." The question which related to 
the establishment of an institution of learning was 
referred to a committee of two " to acquire infor- 
mation and digest a plan for such a seminary." But 
nothing came of all this until many years later. 
The utmost that was accomplished by such action 
was to keep the subject before the mind of the de- 
nomination. In order to meet the deficiency, every 
kind of makeshift was resorted to. The general 
plan in a given section of country was to establish 
a ministerial library by means of a common fund 
and lend the books to such young ministers as might 
be desirous of improvement. In not a few instances 
the most learned of the ministry would assume the 
task of the voluntary instruction of such as were 
willing to accept it. 

Among those who rendered valuable service to 
young ministers should be named Dr. John M. 
Roberts, pastor of the High Hills of Santee Church, 
South Carolina. For a number of years this 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 137 

scholarly preacher gave gratuitous instruction to 
the beneficiaries of the Education Fund of the 
Charleston Association. 

During the first quarter of the present century 
much time and thought was devoted by South- 
ern Baptists to the matter of education. To the 
need of the times, growing more imperatively mani- 
fest every year, were added the fervid injunctions 
of Luther Rice, whose devotion to the sacred cause 
was equally divided between missions and educa- 
tion. Nothing was more manifest than an increas- 
ing need of preachers of ability and influence to 
occupy the pulpits of the growing centers of popu- 
lation ; but there was not sufficient unanimity of 
sentiment in any of the States of the South to de- 
vise a plan for denominational instruction. Reso- 
lutions abounded, committees were appointed, and 
reports were adopted without number ; but no prac- 
tical shape was given to the matter. Added to the 
difficulties, already named, was another which was a 
silent barrier to the general plan of creating insti- 
tutions of learning, that of the rapid development 
of the virgin resources of the new States of the 
South. This brought general prosperity to the 
entire region, and individual fortunes to thousands. 
Among the favored ones were many Baptist preach- 
ers who would come into the possession of lands 
and slaves which gave to them both means and 
leisure to prosecute their studies privately. The 
most active and wide-awake in the management of 



138 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

temporal affairs, they were, as a class, the most pro- 
gressive, ambitious, and talented of the ministry. 
Their interest in the matter was largely neutralized 
by their failure to appreciate the emphatic necessity 
of an institution for the betterment of the ministry 
generally. 1 

In the revival of the spirit of denominational 
education in the South near the close of the first 
quarter of the present century, we find South Caro- 
lina again in the lead. The same cause which led 
to the constitution of Associations after the multi- 
plication of churches, now operated to induce the 
organization of State Conventions when Associations 
had been greatly increased — that of giving stability, 
regularity, and uniformity to denominational enter- 
prise. Foremost in this work was Dr. Richard 
Furman, who was instrumental in procuring an 
assembly of delegates from the Charleston, Savan- 
nah River, and Edgefield Associations, in the city 
of Columbia in 1821. The result of this meeting 
was the formal organization of the Baptist State 
Convention of South Carolina, with Dr. Furman as 
president. An address was prepared by the dis- 
tinguished president to be submitted to the Baptists 
of the State, in which address great emphasis was 
laid upon the importance of an educated ministry. 
Anticipating objections that might be raised against 
this suggestion, Dr. Furman disposed of them, one 
by one, in a most masterly way. Time was needed 
1 Semple, pp. 116-117. 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 139 

for this sentiment to take root. The year following, 
Dr. W. B. Johnson, who succeeded Furman as 
president of the body, took up the same subject and 
discussed it more fully still. 

In order to ultimate success, and for reasons of 
economy, the Baptists of South Carolina were de- 
sirous of co-operating with those of Georgia in the 
establishment of an institution of learning in 
common, for the denomination in both these States 
was agitating the question of providing means for 
the better equipment of the ministry. The question 
of ministerial education was that which underlay 
all the denominational male colleges founded by the 
Baptists in the South and to every one was there a 
theological department attached until the institution 
of theological seminaries in the country. The plan 
for establishing a co-operative institution between 
the Baptists of Georgia and South Carolina was 
settled upon and negotiations entered into with 
every indication of success ; but the obstruction of 
State lines could not be overcome and the under- 
taking fell through. 

Consequently, in 1826 the Convention of South 
Carolina established a school at Edgefield Court- 
house and called it the Furman Academy and 
Theological Institution, and Prof. J. A. Warne was 
placed in charge of it. The books which had been 
gathered for the use of ministerial students by the 
General Committee of the Charleston Association 
formed the nucleus of a library for the new insti- 



140 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

tution. But the enterprise was short-lived, per- 
ishing after the second year. Still the better 
training of the ministry remained a burning ques- 
tion. What should be done under the stress of 
circumstances ? A practical answer to this question 
was undertaken by the retention of the theological 
department of the extinct institution, over which 
was placed Rev. Jesse Hartwell, after its removal 
to High Hills. In 1829 Mr. Hartwell was form- 
ally elected principal of the Furman Theological 
Institution. During the following year, Samuel 
Furman, a son of the late Charleston pastor, was 
associated with Mr. Hartwell as co-principal. After 
a struggle for life extending through two or three 
years, the institution perished. Still the urgent 
necessity of such an institution remained. In 1835 
another effort was made in Fairfield district, where 
there was associated with scholastic training the 
idea of manual labor. For a period of years this 
was a favorite scheme in the South — this union of 
mental and manual labor — and yet no theory ever 
failed more signally to eventuate in practical result. 
Under the principalship of Prof. W. E. Bailey, late 
of Charleston College, the mongrel institution, 
manual, classical, and theological, was begun. It 
was not without tokens of success. New buildings, 
a well-equipped faculty, and encouraging patronage 
gave to the young enterprise much assurance of 
success; but the buildings were burned in 1837, 
Professor Bailey resigned a year later, and the 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 141 

school suspended in 1840. Subsequent enterprises 
were undertaken with varying fortunes during the 
next decade, with which, at different times, were 
conspicuously connected Dr. Hooper, late of the 
University of North Carolina ; Professor Maginnis, 
who was afterward connected with the institutions 
at Hamilton and Rochester, N. Y. ; and Rev. J. L. 
Reynolds and Prof. Jeremiah Chaplin, Jr. From 
these efforts and struggles was finally developed 
Furman University which was established in 1851. 
The Baptists of no State have made a better re- 
cord in matters educational than those of Georgia, 
nor have the Baptists of any State been more highly 
favored with gifted leadership. One of the fore- 
most promoters of education in Georgia was Dr. 
Henry Holcombe, who was originally a Revolution- 
ary officer. Born in Virginia and reared in South 
Carolina, he entered the American army while quite 
a young man and rose to distinction. Being led to 
a study of the New Testament he was convinced of 
his duty, and promptly mounted his horse and rode 
twenty miles from camp in order to be baptized. 
Returning he delivered a sermon to his command 
while still sitting astride his horse. In 1785 he 
was ordained to the ministry, and at once took a 
conspicuous place in the denomination of his adopted 
State, Georgia. He was chosen a delegate to the 
State Convention which adopted the national consti- 
tution. Afterward he became pastor of the Euhaw 
Church, South Carolina, and later became pastor at 



142 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Savannah. It seems that the Baptist meeting-house 
at Savannah was being rented by the Presbyterians 
at the time of Mr. Holcoinbe's call. The few Bap- 
tists of the city had suggested that a call be made 
to Dr. Holcombe to serve jointly the Presbyterians 
and the Baptists. Under these peculiar conditions 
he accepted the call upon a salary of two thousand 
dollars, ^vhich was perhaps the largest that had ever 
been received by a Baptist pastor up to that time. 
In 1800 he organized a Baptist church with a mem- 
bership of ten, which ran up to sixty within two 
years more. He was a true yoke-fellow with Fur- 
man in devising and prosecuting methods for de- 
nominational expansion. Like the pastor at Charles- 
ton, Holcombe was magnificent in his physical pro- 
portions, being six feet two inches high, and weigh- 
ing three hundred pounds. Among his public serv- 
ices may be mentioned his origination of the Georgia 
penitentiary system and the part borne by him in 
founding the Savannah Female Orphan Asylum. 

But the most signal services rendered by him 
were in conjunction with the efforts of Jesse Mercer 
to procure concert of action in the denomination 
along the lines of missions and education. Hol- 
combe was the first to give distinct expression to 
denominational education in Georgia by founding 
the Mt. Enon Academy for the education of Baptist 
youth. Public interest in denominational education 
did not begin to manifest itself in Georgia until 
1825. Among the items contributed that year by 






EDUCATIONAL WORK 143 

the Baptists of Georgia was the sum of seventeen 
dollars and fifty cents for ministerial education. 
Under the inspiration of a sermon preached the fol- 
lowing year by Dr. W. B. Johnson, of South Caro- 
lina, the sum of one hundred and eight dollars was 
collected " for the education of pious young men." 
A beneficiary was adopted in consequence, and the 
executive committee was instructed "to prepare 
some plan by which a fund for bestowing a theo- 
logical education upon beneficiaries might be pro- 
vided." This was the first step in the direction of 
denominational education taken by the Baptists of 
Georgia. The same conditions prevailed in Georgia 
which existed elsewhere throughout the South — the 
majority of the Baptist ministers were unlearned but 
consecrated men, while some of them were very ig- 
norant. Exceptional instances were found in such 
men as W. T. Brantley, Sr., Jesse Mercer, Adiel 
Sherwood, Henry J. Ripley, Iverson L. Brooks, J. 
P. Marshall, B. M. Sanders, and J. H. T. Kilpat- 
rick. These led in the first movement to establish 
an institution of learning of high grade. While 
many supported such a project, many more opposed 
it. 

The retirement of Holcombe from Georgia to 
accept a call from Philadelphia left Jesse Mercer 
the acknowledged leader of the Baptists of the State. 
Henceforth he became the zealous apostle of de- 
nominational progress, stoutly resisting the opposi- 
tion which arose formidably from many quarters. 



144 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

While those whose names have been furnished gave 
him substantial aid and sympathy, his truest yoke- 
fellow was perhaps Adiel Sherwood, who was both 
a preacher and an educator. While pastor at Eaton- 
ton he was principal of the academy at that place 
and did excellent service in a variety of ways for 
the denomination. He was an enthusiastic assistant 
of young men looking to the ministry, and was in- 
strumental in the preparation of a number for their 
work, among whom was Jesse H. Campbell. 

The Baptists of Georgia manifested their interest 
in general educational matters during the twenties 
by liberally contributing to Columbian College in 
response to the appeals of Luther Rice, through 
whom and Jesse Mercer they contributed not less 
than twenty thousand dollars to that institution. 
This liberality was in large measure due to the fact 
that Jesse Mercer was a trustee of Columbian Col- 
lege. Among the means employed with marked 
success by Mr. Mercer to further denominational 
interests was " The Christian Index," the columns 
of which he employed with powerful effect in par- 
rying the blows of the opponents of education and 
missions, and making possible at that time those 
interests among Georgia Baptists. 

The Georgia Baptist Convention was organized 
in 1822. The suggestion of the constitution of 
such a body came first from the Sarepta Associa- 
tion, but the year following it rescinded its action. 
The Georgia Association, together with the Ocmul- 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 145 

gee, met at Powelton in June, 1822, and formally 
organized the body. By degrees other Associations 
fell into line and evangelistic and colportage work 
was pressed with all the vigor possible. A turn in 
the tide of affairs came a little later, however, and 
it seemed, from the great opposition encountered by 
the supporters of the Convention, that it would go 
to pieces. But a most propitious period of the Con- 
vention was just ahead, for in 1829 Josiah Penfield 
bequeathed to the Convention twenty-five hundred 
dollars as the basis of a permanent fund for the 
purposes of theological education, to be paid on 
condition that an equal sum be raised by the Con- 
vention. The sum was speedily raised, Jesse Mer- 
cer heading the list with two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars, Dr. Cullen Battle following with two hundred 
dollars, and others still following with similar 
amounts. At the session of the Convention for 
1831 it was resolved, " That as soon as the funds 
will justify it this Convention will establish in some 
central part of the State a classical and theological 
school." It was further provided that this was to 
be connected with a manual labor department, and 
that only those preparing for the ministry should be 
admitted. Adiel Sherwood promptly pledged him- 
self to raise by subscription fifteen hundred dollars 
for the purchase of needed lands. In 1832 an 
eligible site for the location of Mercer Institute was 
purchased in Greene County, and in honor of Josiah 
Penfield the village was named for him. 



146 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

The rapid progress of the denomination and the 
preparations of the Presbyterians to establish a 
college of high rank, prompted Jesse Mercer to 
undertake greater achievements. He aroused much 
popular enthusiasm by proposing the erection on a 
magnificent scale of a great institution of learning 
at his home at Washington, Georgia, to be known as 
a The Southern Baptist College." A charter was 
promptly obtained and agents went to work to raise 
an endowment fund. One hundred thousand dol- 
lars was soon subscribed, and no doubt the plan 
would have been realized had a financial crash 
not come at that time. As a result the value of 
the subscriptions was depreciated, the charter had 
to be surrendered, popular enthusiasm cooled, and 
before the financial crisis had spent its force the 
possibility of reviving the suspended interest had 
passed. Such of the subscriptions as could be trans- 
ferred to the institution at Penfield were diverted to 
that purpose, and thus began Mercer University. 
B. M. Sanders became the president, S. P. Sanford 
one of the professors, and Adiel Sherwood was 
elected professor of theology. Mercer gave to the 
institution, including his bequest, about forty thou- 
sand dollars. Several efforts were made to remove 
the institution from Penfield ; but no change of loca- 
tion was effected until 1870, when it was removed 
to Macon. The presidents of the institution have 
been : Sanders, Smith, Dagg, Crawford, Tucker, 
Battle, Nunnelly, and Gambrell. 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 147 

The avowed purpose of the formation of the Bap- 
tist State Convention of North Carolina, was the 
creation of means for denominational education. At 
the meeting of the Convention in 1832 it was defi- 
nitely recommended by the committee on education 
and unanimously adopted by the Convention "to 
purchase a suitable farm, and to adopt other pre- 
liminary measures for the establishment of a Bap- 
tist literary institution in this State upon the man- 
ual labor principle." During the same year six 
hundred and fifteen acres of land were purchased 
in Wake County, but the school was not opened 
until 1834. It was called Wake Forest Institute, 
and Samuel Wail, of New York, was elected prin- 
cipal. Beginning with an enrollment of twenty- 
five students, the number was soon increased to 
seventy. 

At first the students were required to perform 
three hours of manual labor daily ; this, however, 
was soon reduced to one hour each day. The hoe 
and the plow were, however, made the concomitants 
of the desk and the blackboard throughout the year. 
During the second year the school was blessed with 
a revival which planted it deeply and permanently 
in the hearts of the denomination. In 1838, by an 
amendment of the original charter, the name of the 
school was changed to that of Wake Forest College. 
Ten years later the college was overwhelmed with 
a debt of twenty thousand dollars and seemed ready 
to sink. The outlook was sufficiently despairing to 



148 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

induce both the president of the Board of Trustees 
and of the college to resign. At this juncture 
Elder James S. Purefoy undertook a voluntary 
agency to lift the burden, which he valiantly suc- 
ceeded in doing the first year. With this the insti- 
tution took a fresh bound forward, so that by 1861 
it had an endowment of forty-six thousand dollars, 
the raising of which was mainly due to the inde- 
fatigable efforts of President Wingate. Wake For- 
est College emerged from the wreck of war with an 
available endowment of only fourteen thousand dol- 
lars. By being wisely administered the endowment 
steadily increased, and by the close of 1883 the col- 
lege had an endowment of one hundred thousand 
dollars, one tenth- of which had been a gift of Mr. 
J. A. Bostwick, of New York. In 1886 he added 
the princely gift of fifty thousand dollars, and yet 
again in 1890, being desirous of aiding the college 
and at the same time of stimulating the Baptists of 
North Carolina to self-help, Mr. Bostwick offered 
to add one-half to whatever amount up to fifty thou- 
sand dollars might be raised for the endowment by 
March 1, 1891. When the time expired there had 
been raised twenty-six thousand dollars. The in- 
stitution is at present in a most flourishing condi- 
tion. The presidents of the college have been 
Waite, Hooper, Wingate, Pritchard, Royall, and 
Taylor. 

The proximity of Columbian College to Virginia 
and the interest shared in that institution by the 



EDUCATIONAL WOEK 149 

Baptists of that State, doubtless had much to do 
with the delay of the establishment of a denomina- 
tional school in the State. But by the year 1830 it 
was seen that Columbian College was inadequate to 
the growing demands in Virginia for a better quali- 
fied ministry. This consideration led to the found- 
ing of the Virginia Baptist Education Society, with 
a view of " devising and proposing some plan for 
the improvement of young men who, in the judg- 
ment of their churches, are called to the work of 
the ministry." Of this Society John Kerr became 
the president and James B. Taylor the secretary. 
A committee, composed of W. F. Broadus, J. B. 
Taylor, J. B. Jeter, and H. Keeling, was appointed 
to draw up a plan and report upon the expediency 
of distinct action relative to providing means for 
the more efficient qualification of the ministry. In 
its report the committee made declaration of the 
fact that it recognized the importance as well as the 
obligation of continued loyalty to Columbian Col- 
lege. It further stated that in its judgment it was 
not deemed expedient to undertake the immediate 
establishment of an institution of learning under 
the auspices of Virginia Baptists. As far as the 
committee would venture was the suggestion of plac- 
ing the ministerial beneficiaries " in the families of 
experienced ministering brethren whose education, 
libraries, and opportunities to give useful instruction 
may enable them to render essential service to their 
younger brethren." With this was coupled the 



150 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

idea of enabling ministerial students to become self- 
supporting by laboring in the surrounding regions 
of country. But this crude arrangement was neces- 
sarily short-lived. Other States were pressing for- 
ward in educational work and their young ministers 
were being fitted for future labor under the most 
encouraging conditions possible. It was soon dis- 
covered that if Virginia Baptists were to maintain 
the position which they had held for a half-century, 
something more was needed to be done than to adopt 
a haphazard plan like the one set forth, and none 
were more ready to abandon it than the eminent 
men who recommended it. That abandoned, the 
inevitable plan of a manual labor school was 
adopted. A site was bought in the neighborhood 
of Richmond ; Robert Ryland, a graduate from Co- 
lumbian College, was elected to preside over it ; and 
the school was duly named the Virginia Baptist 
Seminary. Mr. Ryland discouraged the attempt to 
organize a school at once, bat the popular current 
in favor of the prompt opening of such an institu- 
tion was too strong to be stemmed. Failing in this 
objection he sought to have eliminated from it the 
manual labor feature ; but he failed in this also. 
While he detected in the existing plan elements of 
failure, he wisely surrendered his convictions and 
awaited practical demonstrations for a vindication 
of his views. Mr. Ryland soon illustrated his prac- 
tical knowledge of the science of agriculture by 
seeking to enrich a field of corn with salt, placing a 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 151 

handful at the root of each stalk and — killing it ! 
He was not without the greatest diligence in seeking 
to make the enterprise successful, but he soon found 
himself almost alone in his efforts, as the denomina- 
tion left the institution largely to shift for itself. 
After an experiment of two years the manual labor 
feature was shown to be unpractical, as usual, the 
farm was sold, and an attractive property was bought 
within the city limits of Richmond. It was not 
until 1840 that a college was established by the 
Baptists of Virginia. Perhaps, after all, there was 
advantage in the delay, as the denomination came to 
have a loftier conception of a college at a later 
period than it evidently had fifteen years before 
Richmond College was founded. Additional advan- 
tage was gained by the unsurpassed instruction 
given at the University of Virginia, the influence 
of which was most stimulating and elevating 
throughout the State. The leading denomination 
of Virginia with its splendid record could not 
afford to establish an institution of inferior char- 
acter within so short a distance of the famous uni- 
versity. 

The Civil War found Richmond College with an 
endowment of one hundred thousand dollars, the 
most of which was lost in consequence of that great 
struggle. Prostrated as the people were by the war, 
they rallied anew to the support of Richmond Col- 
lege, and in 1866 it was enabled to open its doors 
again to students. Like other denominational col- 



152 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

leges in the South, Richmond College has been the 
recipient of Northern benefactions, without which it 
could not have so speedily rallied ; but with such 
assistance, it has been placed upon a solid basis and 
is perhaps the most advanced, in its standard of in- 
struction, of all the Baptist colleges of the South. 

The Baptists of Kentucky were among the first 
of the States of the South to take steps to found a 
denominational school. A charter for Georgetown 
College, then known as Georgetown Literary and 
Theological Institution, was procured as early as 
1829. Dr. William Staughton, a minister and edu- 
cator of distinction, who had been president of 
Columbian College, was called to the president's 
chair, but died in Washington while on his way to 
Kentucky to assume the office to which he had been 
elected. In 1830 Dr. Joel S. Bacon was elected to 
succeed him. Dr. Bacon at once found himself in- 
volved in serious complications with the Disciples, 
who were at that time breaking with the Baptists 
throughout the State, and whose claims against the 
school were such as to plunge it into litigation. 
After struggling against adverse conditions for two 
years, he resigned. The institution dropped to the 
level of a high school, in which condition it re- 
mained until 1838. Rockwood Giddings having 
now become president, he addressed himself to the 
work of procuring subscriptions for an endowment, 
and raised eighty thousand dollars. In 1840 Dr. 
Malcom succeeded Giddings as president, and raised 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 153 

the standard of the college above that which it had 
ever enjoyed. Then followed the presidencies of 
Drs. Reynolds, Campbell, Crawford, Manly, and 
Dudley — the last named being a descendant of the 
famous pioneer preacher, Ambrose Dudley. George- 
town College is at present presided over by Dr. A. 
C. Davidson and is in a most prosperous condition. 

Bethel College, in the same State, was projected 
by Bethel Association in 1849. Begun as a high 
school, it was elevated to the standard of a college 
in 1856, when Mr. Blewett became its first presi- 
dent. With the exception of two years during the 
war, the school has been in successful operation 
ever since it began. Its presidents have been 
George Hunt, Professor Rust, Noah K. Davis, 
ll. D., at present professor of Moral Philosophy in 
the University of Virginia ; Leslie Waggener, 
sometime president of the University of Texas ; 
and Dr. W. S. Ryland, who is the present incum- 
bent of the presidential chair. The college enjoys 
an endowment of one hundred thousand dollars. 

In 1845 the Western Baptist Theological Insti- 
tute was located at Covington, Kentucky, and had 
the misfortune to be an object of contention as long 
as it existed. Located on the border at a time 
when sectional passion was highest, it was destined 
to be short-lived. It ran a troublous course of ten 
years, when the valuable property was sold and the 
proceeds were divided between the irreconcilable 
elements. The Ministerial Education Society of 



</ 



154 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Kentucky was constituted in 1844, and as is indi- 
cated by its name, its object was " to aid in acquir- 
ing a suitable education, such indigent, pious young 
men of the Baptist denomination as shall give satis- 
factory evidences to the churches of which they are 
members that they are called of God to the gospel 
ministry." Meagreness of resources limited the 
operations of this society, yet in a quiet way it 
rendered much valuable aid to young men fitting 
themselves for the ministry. . The final success of 
Georgetown College obviated the necessity of the 
continued existence of the society. 

Like Kentucky, Tennessee had two institutions 
of learning belonging to the Baptists — Union Uni- 
versity, at Murfreesboro, and Carson College, in 
Jefferson County. After the accomplishment of 
some excellent work under President J. H. Eaton, 
and Dr. J. M. Pendleton as theological professor, 
Union University became extinct. Its career was 
doubtless shortened by the Civil War. In 1873 
another institution was founded at Jackson, known 
as the Southwestern University, which is now under 
the successful management of President M. C. 
Savage. 

Carson-Newman College, formerly Carson, was 
founded near the town of Mossy Creek in 1850. 
It was chartered under the patronage of the Gen- 
eral Association of the State and derived its name 
from its chief benefactor, Hon. James H. Carson, 
who bequeathed to the institution fifteen thousand 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 155 

dollars, the interest of which was to be used in the 
education of young ministers. The institution has 
of late years come into the possession of a partial 
endowment, and is at present presided over by 
President J. T. Henderson. 

Early in the thirties, the Baptists of Alabama 
began the agitation of the question of establishing a 
denominational school, suggested, as in other States, 
by the growth of the Baptists and the inefficiency of 
their ministry. In resolving to establish such a 
school the Baptists of Alabama adopted the manual 
labor plan, in spite of its failures in other States. 
At this time the leaders of the denomination were 
D. P. Bestor, Hosea Holcombe, Alex. Travis, J. 
H. DeVotie, and A. G. McGraw. In 1834 pro- 
vision was made for the contemplated school to go 
into operation as soon as practicable with two de- 
partments, literary and theological. W. L. Willi- 
ford became the first principal, and D. P. Bestor 
was elected to deliver lectures upon theology. 
After a brief career the enterprise failed, and in 
consequence, the Baptists of' Alabama found them- 
selves loaded with debt, after wrestling with which 
for a period, the denomination sold the property 
and for a number of years abandoned the matter of 
education altogether. Meanwhile the deficiency was 
met as far as was practicable by supplying young min- 
isters with theological works. Driven by sheer neces- 
sity to establish a school to meet the urgent demands 
of the denomination, Howard College was organized 



156 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

in 1842. Under the able management of S. S. 
Sherman, it was gradually developed into a respecta- 
ble collegiate institution. From the period of its 
establishment to the outbreak of the Civil War it 
was ardently fostered by the Baptists of Alabama. 
After an eventful history of almost fifty years, the 
college Avas removed from Marion, its original 
location, to East Lake, near Birmingham, where it 
now is. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1861, the 
college was in the enjoyment of a handsome endow- 
ment, which was entirely wrecked by the war. 
Efforts to endow the institution within the last 
twenty-five years have been unavailing. In spite 
of its vicissitudes the college has continued to do ex- 
cellent work. Its presidents have been S. S. Sher- 
man, H. Talbird, S. R. Freeman, J. L. M. Curry, 
J. T. Murfee, B. F. Riley, and A. W. McGaha. 

Not unlike that of the other States, the educa- 
tional work of the Mississippi Baptists was at first 
fragmentary and unsatisfactory. The State Con- 
vention was founded upon the dual idea of education 
and missions. The school which ultimately came 
into the possession of the Baptists had rather a 
checkered career. Chartered in 1826 as Hempstead 
Academy, its name was changed by legislative en- 
actment the following year to that of Mississippi 
Academy, for the endowment of which the Board of 
Trustees was authorized to raise by lottery twenty- 
five thousand dollars. For four years the rents 
arising from thirty-six sections of the school fund 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 157 

donated by the national government to the State 
was given to the academy. In 1830 the name of 
Mississippi College was given to the institution, and 
in 1842 it was transferred to the Presbyterians, 
who retained it just eight years. Having been sur- 
rendered to the State at a time when the Baptist 
Convention of Mississippi was assembled at the cap- 
ital, the college was tendered to that body and ac- 
cepted. Once in their possession, the Baptists 
promptly placed an agent in the field, who raised for 
its endowment within ten years one hundred thou- 
sand dollars in cash, and thirty thousand dollars in 
subscriptions. With the war came a suspension of 
operations and the destruction of the endowment. 
In 1867 Dr. Hillman became president, and found 
the institution encumbered with a debt of ten 
thousand dollars, which he promptly liquidated, 
placed the buildings in repair, and by 1873 raised 
an endowment of forty thousand dollars. The col- 
lege is located at Clinton and is a largely attended 
and popular institution. 

Until a comparatively late period the Baptists of 
Louisiana were dependent upon institutions in other 
States for the education of their youth. In the 
pioneer movement of the denomination in this State 
in the matter of education, there was an attempt 
made to place an institution upon a higher plane 
than had been made in most of the other States of 
the South. A full-fledged university, at least in 
name, was at first contemplated at Mount Lebanon, 



158 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

to be known as the Mount Lebanon University. 
This enterprise was projected by Dr. B. Egan, who 
was warmly supported by Rev. George W. Bains, 
the pastor of the church at Mount Lebanon. For 
five years, beginning with 1847, the subject was 
agitated. Nor was anything done as late as 1852, 
save to determine the establishment of a school of 
high grade " with a theological department con- 
nected therewith . . . and as auxiliary to the object, 
a female seminary." l 

Rev. W. H. Bayless was chosen financial agent 
by a newly organized Board of Trustees, and soon 
raised one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight 
dollars and twelve cents. A lot was procured and 
a building of sufficient capacity to accommodate two 
hundred students was arranged for. William E. 
Paxton, A. M., was chosen to institute the new 
enterprise by opening the school for the preparatory 
department. This he did in March, 1853, with an 
attendance of about twenty-five students. At a 
subsequent meeting of the State Convention in July 
the sum of five thousand two hundred and eighty 
dollars was subscribed to the theological endowment 
fund. 

In 1856 the collegiate department was organized 
and Dr. Bartholomew Egan was chosen as president 
with a corps of four professors. Both the president 
and the professor of theology agreed to serve gratui- 
tously, while the other instructors served in the pre- 

1 Paxton's " History of Louisiana Baptists," p. 446. 



EDUCATIONAL WOEK 159 

paratory department. Commendable zeal was mani- 
fested by all engaged in the struggling enterprise, 
and by the close of 1857 a fund equal to twenty-five 
thousand dollars had been raised. The services of 
Rev. Jesse Hartwell, d. d., as president, were pro- 
cured in 1858. Strangely enough, in 1859 the Bap- 
tist State Convention of Louisiana memorialized the 
legislature for aid, and received as a donation from 
the State treasury ten thousand dollars. 1 

President Hartwell dying about this time, Rev. 
W. Carey Crane was secured to succeed him at the 
head of the college. The collegiate year of 1861 
closed with one hundred and twenty-seven students 
enrolled. The Civil War checked the growth of 
the enterprise, and finally the school was suspended. 
The building was impressed by the Confederate 
authorities into service as a hospital and was thus 
used until the close of the war. Ineffectual efforts 
were made to revive the school after the close of the 
struggle, under the less pretentious title of a high 
school, but in the chaotic condition of the country it 
collapsed and was finally abandoned. 

In avoiding the Scylla of a manual labor school, 
which was for many years a favorite project in so 
many of the States of the South, the Baptists of 
Louisiana had foundered in the Charybdis of a uni- 
versity enterprise. 

With less success and far less business sagacity 
was another university undertaken by the Baptists, 
1 Paxton's " History of Louisiana Baptists," p. 480. 



• 



160 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHEKN STATES 

at Shreveport, in 1870. The Helm School property, 
embracing seventy acres of land, was purchased in 
the suburbs of Shreveport, with a view of establish- 
ing a university. Unfortunately, alike for the pro- 
jectors and the Southern Life Insurance Company, 
policies were taken in that corporation in favor 
of the university, and the insurance company ad- 
vanced the money with which to erect a college 
building. The school opened in 1871. Three years 
later no building had been erected, the railway 
which was to connect the school with the city was 
yet unbuilt, business depression came, the yellow 
fever ravaged the city, the money panic of 1874 
swept on apace, the insurance company by whose 
generous aid the institution was to be set upon its 
feet failed, all of which was succeeded by the 
mechanics' liens and the foreclosure of the mortgage 
created for the money already borrowed. Thus 
ended the short but eventful career of Shreveport 
University. 

The chief institution of the Baptists of Louisiana 
at present is Keachi College, a co-educational school. 
The Keachi Female College and the Keachi Acad- 
emy for boys were united in 1879, with Rev. J. H. 
Tucker as president. Dying in 1881, President 
Tucker was succeeded by Rev. T. N. Coleman, who 
was followed by Rev. C. P. Fountain, and he in 
turn' by Rev. C. W. Tomkies, the present incumbent 
of the administrative chair. 

The Baptists of Florida were reduced to divers 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 161 

makeshifts for education until 1887, when Mr. 
John B. Stetson, of Philadelphia, founded at Deland 
"The John B. Stetson University." Though the 
youngest of the denominational schools of the States 
of the South, it has made a most honorable record 
since it was founded. John F. Forbes, A. M., ph. d., 
is the gifted and progressive president of Stetson 
University. 

Columbian University, Washington, D. C, has had 
a unique history. It was conceived by Luther Bice 
as a National Baptist institution, which should derive 
great importance from its surroundings in the na- 
tion's capital. The chief purpose of the devoted 
founder was to link into closest intimacy the great 
interests of education and missions in such way that 
they might mutually aid and supplement each other. 
The original conception of such a plan was doubtless 
due, in part, to the missionary enthusiasm aroused 
by the enlistment of American Baptists in foreign 
mission work in Burma and partly to the vast ad- 
vantages arising from the availability of educational 
appliances at Washington. , With consuming zeal 
Bice undertook to press the claims of these great in- 
terests in conjunction, but the public mind failed to 
grasp them in their dual capacity. Such enthusiasm 
was aroused in behalf of the national Baptist uni- 
versity that it became a rival of foreign missions 
rather than a twin sister. For three years the de- 
nomination, North and South, was stirred by ap- 
peals in behalf of Columbian University. Local 



162 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

societies were organized throughout the country in 
the interest of the national university, and large 
sums of money were raised before the meeting of the 
Triennial Convention for 1820. At the session of 
that body the matter of a practical union of educa- 
tion and missions was maturely considered, and it 
was decided that education in America and missions 
in Burma lay so far apart that they could never be 
associated in a practical plan for the furtherance of 
both, and a disjunction of these interests promptly 
followed. Financial embarrassments soon menaced 
the college and led to the suspension of its work in 
1827, only to be revived, however, the following 
year under the neAV administration of Dr. Stephen 
Chapin as president, who was its presiding officer 
for fifteen years, and who not only cancelled the in- 
debtedness, but revived the institution. 

Upon the retirement of Dr. Chapin from the pres- 
idential office, Professor William Euggles was placed 
at the head of the institution temporarily, for in 
1 843 Dr. Joel S. Bacon became president. He found 
the institution without debt, and equally without en- 
dowment. Dr. Bacon remained president until 1854, 
when Professor Ruggles was again called, for a sea- 
son, to the head of the college. During the admin- 
istration of Dr. Bacon the work of endowment was 
prosecuted at different times by Drs. A. M. Poin- 
dexter and William F. Broadus, of Virginia, the lat- 
ter procuring subscriptions to the amount of twenty 
thousand dollars, and by that means secured the 



EDUCATIONAL WORK 163 

fulfillment of a conditional promise of John Withers, 
of Alexandria, Virginia, for an equal amount. Rev. 
G. W. Samson, D. D., became president in 1859, and 
maintained the college with signal ability during the 
troublous period of the war. In spite of the diffi- 
culties of the peculiarly trying period during which 
he was president, both the efficiency and the material 
value of the institution were greatly enhanced. Dr. 
Samson resigning in 1871, J. C. Welling, ll. d., 
became president. In 1873, Hon. W. W. Corcoran 
agreed to give to the university two hundred thou- 
sand dollars provided its friends would raise an 
additional one hundred thousand dollars. This con- 
dition was complied with and the institution entered 
upon a new career of prosperity. Rev. B. L. Whit- 
man, d. D., is now (1898) the president of the Uni- 
versity, and all indications point to an unprecedented 
prosperity on the part of the institution. 

The institutions for the education of girls and 
young women conducted under the auspices, either 
directly or indirectly, of the Baptists of the South, 
are somewhat numerous. 

Some of these schools sustain organic connection 
with the State Conventions, while others are the 
result of private or local enterprise. The latter 
class are Baptist only by virtue of the fact that 
their founders, or owners, are Baptists. It is im- 
possible, for obvious reasons, to give to these schools 
equal prominence with those which have been estab- 



164 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

lished directly by the denomination for the other 
sex. The schools to which attention has been given 
in the present chapter have been founded primarily 
for the purpose of affording scholastic advantages to 
the young ministry of each State, while the schools 
for young women have come in response to a demon- 
stration of public sentiment for womanly culture, 
and usually irrespective of denominational lines, 

It is not practicable in a work of restricted com- 
pass like this to enlarge upon the histories of these 
valuable schools for young women, but in an appen- 
dix, pages 361-363, attention is called to such as 
come practically or entirely under the direction of 
the denomination in the several States of the South. 



CHAPTER VI 

DIVEEGENT VIEWS 

WHILE essentially one, the Baptists of the States 
of the South have never been in sentiment a 
unit. There have been differences of views among 
them from the beginning. Already occasions have 
arisen for calling attention to the divergent views of 
the early Baptists of Virginia, the Carolinas, and 
Georgia. The original divergence of views came 
between the General and the Particular Baptists, 
the former advocating the doctrine of the possibility 
of universal redemption in contradistinction to the 
doctrine of a limited redemption, or the salvation of 
the elect as held by the Particulars. 

Adherents to both of these views came among 
the earliest Baptists from beyond the Atlantic" The 
principles and practices of the General Baptists 
were characterized by more or less laxness. Re- 
quiring no experience of grace, nor statement of 
doctrine, the General Baptists were reckless in the 
administration of the ordinances. They were im- 
mersionists, and this was about the only point upon 
which they and the Particular Baptists were agreed. 
The easy-going requirements of the General Bap- 
tists, involving little or no renunciation of one's 

165 



166 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

former life, made them popular. Their most noted 
representative in the South, in its earliest history, 
was Paul Palmer. Unfortunately but little is 
known of this remarkable man, but the indications 
are that he came direct from England to Xorth 
Carolina. While to him is usually accorded the honor 
of being the pioneer Baptist preacher of Xorth Caro- 
lina, the strong probability is that he was attracted 
to that province by the Baptist churches already ex- 
isting, of which we have no definite record. The 
remarkable exemption of the Baptists of Xorth 
Carolina from persecution possibly served as an in- 
ducement to the liberty-loving Palmer, whose great- 
est delight was found in preaching. The views 
held by Palmer were in entire accord with those 
held by the Arminian Baptists of England. Wield- 
ing an immense influence over the colonists of 
Xorth Carolina, Palmer sowed broadcast the seeds 
of Arminianism in the early churches of the prov- 
ince. But after the advent of Whitefield the tide 
was turned toward Calvinism. Alike from two 
centers of influence, Philadelphia and Charleston, 
there went forth Calvinistic missionaries, and the 
result was a rapid and radical change to the stand- 
ard of the Particulars. 

The next division of sentiment was that which 
existed between the Separate and the Regular Bap- 
tists, the former being really Calvinistic Methodists, 
and composed chiefly of AVhitefi eld's followers. 
They sprang up in 1750, and were first called Xew 



DIVERGENT VIEWS 167 

Lights. Subsequently, however, they were organ- 
ized into separate societies by Shubael Stearns, and 
because of this independency of organization came 
to be called Separates. A year after he originated 
this new sect Stearns became a Baptist, as we have 
already seen, and most of the Separates followed 
him into that denomination. When this great leader 
adopted the views of the Baptists, the Separates as 
a sect became extinct. They, however, carried their 
distinctive views with them into the Baptist fold, 
which views were that believers are guided by the 
immediate teachings of the Holy Spirit, such super- 
natural indications being regarded by them as par- 
taking of the nature of inspiration, and above, 
though not contrary to, reason. The Separate Bap- 
tists were by far the most conspicuous opponents of 
the establishment during the period of persecution 
in Virginia. It was the representatives of the 
Separate Baptists who were imprisoned in the jails 
of Virginia, who were whipped, and who, in spite 
of these dire persecutions, preached from their 
prison windows. In 1787 a union was effected be- 
tween the Separate and Regular Baptists upon a 
basis mutually satisfactory, and both designations, 
as independent branches, were discontinued. 

But the denomination was destined to still greater 
distractions and fiercer internal dissensions than 
were produced by original divisions. As has 
already been shown there was much local evangeli- 
zation accomplished by the Baptists during the 



168 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

pioneer period of Southern history. In the upper 
and older regions of the South the Separate Baptists 
carried with fervid zeal the gospel in the most re- 
mote settlements. With increase of numbers, es- 
pecially in the populous centers, came a desire for 
improvement in ministerial qualifications, pastoral 
compensation, and enlarged ideas of missionary 
operation. The advocacy of such views aroused 
opposition which manifested itself in a general anti- 
missionary spirit which did much to impede the 
progress of the Baptists in the South. This class 
of opponents threw themselves directly in the way 
of all efforts to develop the denomination along 
educational lines. It required a hard and protracted 
struggle to establish a school of learning of any 
character in the South. While ministerial educa- 
tion was regarded by the most prominent among the 
Baptists as being imperative, it was this which ex- 
cited the most strenuous opposition on the part of 
the ignorant. 

It is not difficult to see that the logical conse- 
quence of all this was the factious and fiery opposi- 
tion subsequently raised against all agencies for the 
spread of the gospel. If human agency was ob- 
jectionable in the equipment of the sacred ministry, 
it was equally so in the creation of means for dis- 
seminating the sacred gospel. Hence Sunday- 
schools, Bible societies, and mission Boards were 
ranked in the same objectionable category with min- 
isterial education. It was at this point that the 



DIVERGENT VIEWS 169 

fiercest struggle began on the part of the Baptists 
of the South, and it may be said that it has been 
continued to the present time. As local missionaries \ 
the Baptists have never been surpassed by any other 
people in the South. Their ministry has been the 
most active and self-sacrificing in giving the gospel 
to the destitute regions ; but if the effort were made 
by the most progressive to urge the claims of the 
remoter portions of the world, firm opposition would 
ensue. Planting themselves steadfastly in this posi- 
tion, those of more restricted views waged a steady 
and relentless war throughout the States of the South 
against foreign missions. 

The strength of this opposition was increased by 
the appearance of two journals upon the scene, ^ 
"The Signs of the Times" and a The Primitive ^ 
Baptist." These factious organs came from States 
outside the South, and their wild statements were 
accepted by the gullible multitude as if they were 
oracles. The anti-missionary element of the de- 
nomination insisted upon being called " Old Side " 
or " Primitive Baptists," the obvious purpose being 
to assume to themselves the original principles of the 
denomination, and to cast aspersion upon such as 
had departed from the faith and practice of the 
original standards by the introduction of new-fangled 
practices. 

The most ridiculous assumptions were entertained 
by these anti-effort Baptists, and fostered by the 
organs already named, which found their way at 



170 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

stated intervals into the South. One of these sheets 
insisted that the money collected by pastors, mission 
agents, and others, was never applied to the objects 
for which it was claimed to be raised, but was de- 
voted to schemes of speculation in the cities of the 
Xorth. That was equaled only by the following 
piece of vaporing which is a literal quotation from 
the Minutes of the Pilgrim's Rest Association of 
Alabama : 

We view theological schools unwarranted in the word 
of God and dangerous to religious liberty. And wher- 
ever they have been organized, whether Jewish, Pagan, 
Heathen, Roman Catholic, or Christian, they have been 
a source of persecution and bloodshed on the church of 
Christ. 

And this effusion was the product of one of their 
leaders. Another of their ministers wrote : 

Do not forget the enemy (the missionaries) ; bear them 
in mind ; the howling, destructive wolves, the raven- 
ous dogs, and the filthy and their numerous whelps. 
By a minute observation and the consultation of the 
sacred, never-failing, descriptive chart, even their 
physiognomy in dress, mien, and carriage, and many 
other indented, indelible, descriptive marks, too tedious 
at present to write. The wolfish smell is enough to 
alarm, to create suspicion, and to ascertain ; the dogs' 
teeth are noted, and the wolves for their peculiar and 
distinct howl, etc. 

Whatever there may or may not be in this jargon, 
there can be no doubt of its bitterness and violence 



DIVERGENT VIEWS 171 

against mission agents. One of their number 
asserted on one occasion that if an angel should 
come from heaven and declare the missionary cause 
was of God he would not believe it. Where igno- 
rance, prejudice, and blasphemy were dominant in 
such a host as had been gathered into the Baptist 
churches throughout the South it is not a matter of 
wonder that the development of the missionary 
spirit had been slow. 

But unawed by these demonstrations, the advo- 
cates of missions were firm and pronounced in the 
enunciation of their principles. The two wings be- 
came more separated as the intensity of sentiment 
grew. There was, however, a perceptible growth 
of the missionary spirit and a corresponding decline 
in that of the opponents of missions. If the in- 
crease encouraged and emboldened the one the de- 
crease made the other more obdurate and reckless. 
An occasional break would occur in the ranks of the 
opponents and result in new accessions to the mis- 
sionary Baptists. The change of sentiment, when 
it came, was favorable to missions. There was, 
however, one extraordinary exception to this rule in 
Tennessee, where there was a decided reaction against 
missions. It seems that Luther Bice, during his 
tours of the South, had succeeded in arousing much 
zeal in missions among the churches of Tennessee. 
But about 1820 the current of sentiment changed 
and the reaction assumed a most malignant form. 
Indeed, so serious did the opposition become that it 



172 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

is said, " not a man ventured to open his mouth in 
favor of any benevolent enterprise or action." The 
result was that the work of organization effected by 
Rice went to pieces, a deplorably chaotic condition 
in the churches followed, the friends of the opposi- 
tion rallied, and the cause of missions was for a 
long time paralyzed. The influence of this reaction 
spread into adjoining regions. Largely in conse- 
quence of this the churches of North Alabama almost 
without exception became anti-missionary. 

The lack of interest in missions has been accounted 
for in various ways. 

It has been alleged that the illiteracy of the 
masses of the people was a serious barrier, which 
was enhanced by the fact that their time was so ab- 
sorbed in clearing the land and bringing it into cul- 
tivation. Further, that the emphasis given to hyper- 
Calvinism, which was pushed to such ridiculous 
conclusions as to disparage all human effort, was a 
serious obstruction to the progress of missions. 
Under such an influence as that exerted by a strong- 
willed and illiterate ministry, it is easy to see how 
the hyper-Calvinists would come to prevail. 

Again, the aggressive movements of the Meth- 
odists, the Cumberland Presbyterians, and the 
Disciples, with their Arminian teaching stiffened the 
resistance of the hyper-Calvinistic Baptists, and 
thus impaired the possibility of commanding the 
necessary means for missionary enterprise. Lastly, 
the activity of Daniel Parker, the apostle of opposi- 



DIVEEGENT VIEWS 173 

tion to missions was a most formidable obstruction 
to the development of the spirit of missions. 

To these may be aptly added that of worldliness, 
which grew apace with the development of the 
country and the accumulation of wealth. Any pre- 
text was welcomed which served to lessen the out- 
flow of money from private coffers. 

Disorder and dissension reigned among the 
churches and Associations of the South until about 
1836 or 1838, which time is generally regarded as 
the period of " the great split." By this time the 
anti-mission forces had become very hostile, and in- 
sisted upon a withdrawal from all churches and 
Associations which favored missions. This cleavage 
was most fortunate. The separation was the dawn 
of a better day to the missionary Baptist churches of 
the South. The difference between the histories of 
the two branches of the Baptist family is most in- 
structive. The one has grown with enlightenment 
and development, has founded and maintained its 
schools of learning, has established a most reputable 
denominational press, has produced a type of schol- 
arship which is equal to that of the most advanced, 
has planted its churches in the most commanding 
centers, and has sent its missionaries to the farthest 
regions of the globe. The other has steadily kept 
itself in the remote rural regions, beyond the con- 
fines of enlightenment and progress. 

Another most fruitful source of disturbance among 
the churches of the South was the promulgation of 



174 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the views of Alexander Campbell, who made his 
advent as the founder of a new sect during the anti- 
missionary agitation. Indeed, as far as he could, 
Mr. Campbell appropriated the disturbance to the 
furtherance of his own views. He coincided with 
the anti-mission elements, both in their opposition 
to missions and to pastoral support. Through his 
organ, "The Christian Baptist," a small religious 
monthly, which appeared first in 1823, Mr. 
Campbell, with an exceedingly pretentious regard 
for literal conformity to Bible standards, put him- 
self into direct alliance with the opponents of mis- 
sions, Bible societies, education societies, Boards, 
and, indeed, of all evangelical agencies. Possessed 
of a voluble tongue and disputatious spirit, he soon 
won his way to local renown as a debater. Making 
a preaching tour through the States of Kentucky 
and Tennessee as far South as Nashville, Mr. 
Campbell created an ovation, and won for himself 
considerable distinction. 1 This was the beginning 
of a notable career. Adroit in argument, incisive 
in sarcasm and caricature, shrewd in repartee, and 
possessed of an overweening confidence in his ability, 
Mr. Campbell was a polemic Ajax in the region 
where he began the propagation of his tenets. Aban- 
doning the beaten tracks of discussion, he invested 
his views with a charm and novelty that never 
failed to catch the ear of the multitude. 

1 Dr. A. H. Newman, "American Church History" (Baptist), 
Vol. II., pp. 438, 439. 



DIVERGENT VIEWS 175 

No season could have been more opportune for 
the advent of such a reformer as Mr. Campbell 
than the one in which he appeared. The churches 
were ripe for a change. Hyper-Calvinistic or an- 
tinomian views had been thundered from the pulpits 
for many years together. The constant discussion 
of so contracted views around the fireside and in 
the home circle, as well as from the pulpit, had 
worn away the patience of thousands of auditors. 
The presentation of dry, dull speculations which 
sprang from hyper-Calvinistic views, palled upon 
the intellectual taste. The people hungered for 
bread and were given a stone. 

At this juncture Alexander Campbell flashed into 
sudden prominence. To him the prevailing condi- 
tions furnished a golden opportunity, and right well 
did he improve it. Hundreds flocked to the stand- 
ard of " the 'Reformer," a designation in which he 
delighted. Under his direction a sect was gradually 
formed which assumed the self-styled name of " Re- 
formers," but opprobriously called by their oppo- 
nents " Campbellites." The appearance of Mr. 
Campbell was the signal for strife, divisions, aliena- 
tion, and irritation. His disputatious supporters 
were most active in proselyting. With more of 
zeal than of propriety they were constantly thrust- 
ing their views upon all with whom they met. This 
movement came as a great shock to the churches of 
Virginia and Kentucky. It rapidly spread into the 
adjacent States. In some instances entire churches 



176 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

were caught in its toils. This was notably true of 
the First Church of Nashville, Tennessee, which 
for a season fell completely under the domination 
of the Disciples. Doubtless the division between 
the followers of Campbell and the Baptists would 
have occurred in Kentucky earlier by three years, 
but it was stayed by the great revival which begau 
in 1827. By the severance of fellowship on the 
part of Baptist churches from the adherents of 
Campbell, the way to an independent organization 
was made easy. 

Professing to return to the original principles of 
Christianity, the new sect assumed the name of 
" Disciples." Accessions were gained to the ranks 
of the new organization alike from the Baptists, 
Methodists, and Presbyterians ; but the Baptists 
furnished the greater number. For a period of 
years the sect was very popular. It swept like a 
prairie fire over the new West and far into the 
States of the South. For a time it seemed that it 
would overwhelm every other denomination. Ad- 
herents continued to flock to it by the thousand. 
In the acquisition of converts the utmost scrupu- 
lousness was not always observed. Every means 
was laid under tribute to arouse prejudice, engender 
discord in churches and communities, and to pro- 
duce confusion in the minds of the wavering. Bois- 
terous in declamation, and brazen in the assertion 
of their views, the followers of Mr. Campbell made 
rapid headway with the excited multitudes which 



DIVERGENT VIEWS 177 

thronged upon their preaching. Whatever else 
may be said of this agitation, there is little doubt 
that anti-pedobaptism and immersion were greatly 
helped by it. The stress vehemently laid upon im- 
mersion by the Disciples emphasized to the minds of 
thousands of Pedobaptists the importance of a thor- 
ough examination of the subject. The result was 
the conversion of very many to the doctrine of im- 
mersion. 

An additional cause of distraction in the Baptist 
churches of the South is what is known as "Old 
Landmarkism," a term the honor of the authorship 
of which is divided between Drs. J. M. Pendleton 
and J. P. Graves. They were the first to give ex- 
pression to the views which characterized a party of 
Baptists who came well-nigh going sufficiently far 
in the extremity of their views to form a distinct 
sect. This party prevailed mostly in the Southwest. 
The movement under Doctors Pendleton and Graves 
was an attempted reaction from the growth of con- 
servatism in the Baptist denomination South. The 
principal features of " Old Landmarkism " were an 
insistence of Baptist apostolic succession ; a declara- 
tion of the absolute necessity of properly authorized 
administrators of baptism in order to the validity 
of the ordinance ; the refusal to accept as valid 
baptism that which is administered by a Pedobaptist ; 
a denial that Pedobaptist organizations are churches, 
and that their ministers are properly authorized 
preachers of the gospel. At a later period Doctor 

M 



178 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Graves sought to graft upon these views that of non- 
intercoinniunion, in which he denied the scriptural 
right of a member of a Baptist church to commune 
with any other than that of which he is a member. 

These views were urged with great energy in the 
valley of the Mississippi, finding an expression, for 
the most part, through "The Tennessee Baptist,'* 
of which Doctor Graves had been the editor since 
1846. Doctor Graves was a polemicist of no or- 
dinary ability, and a speaker of much charming 
magnetism. In him were equally blended the facile 
writer and eloquent speaker, so that through word 
of mouth as well as through the columns of " The 
Tennessee Baptist," he was able to sway multitudes 
of those whose eyes and ears he was enabled to 
reach. For many years his paper was an engine of 
power among the Baptists of the Southwest. Nor 
was he without some following throughout the States 
of the South. His views boldly urged furnished a 
fruitful source of discussion, not altogether un- 
attended at times by bitter dissension. 

For about a quarter of a century this spirit held 
sway chiefly in the region of the great basin of the 
Mississippi, but after that time a reaction set in and 
enlightened conservatism reasserted itself. While 
there are still to be found in different portions of the 
South and Southwest some who cling to the views of 
the original " Landmarkers," they are few in com- 
parison with those of a quarter of a century ago. 



CHAPTER VII 

INTEREST IN MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 

THE early Baptists of the South were noted for 
their zeal in home missions. To this fact, 
more than to any other, is due the marvelous ex- 
pansion of the denomination during the first half- 
century of its history. The early Baptist minis- 
try of the South has never been excelled in its un- 
quenchable zeal in providing the destitute with the 
gospel. Hardy and heroic, these primitive preach- 
ers of the South were in the advance guard of 
Southern civilization, lured partly by the unexplored 
but inviting region which lay toward the setting 
sun, and in part by a desire to extend the limits of 
Christian evangelization. Along with the redemp- 
tion of the wilderness and the waste places was the 
reclamation of the multitudes from vice. 

These heroic men braved all dangers and endured 
every hardship in their determination to preach. 
Rarer exhibitions of missionary zeal were not illus- 
trated even during the apostolic age. Already occa- 
sions have arisen several times for reference to this 
spirit of early evangelization. 

Resistance to the work of home missions was 
never made ; but when the matter of foreign mis- 

179 



180 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

sions was suggested to the early churches, opposition 
was at once aroused. Objections to such a move- 
ment became vehement, as it was deemed a clear in- 
fringement of the divine prerogative thus to under- 
take the evangelization of the peoples of the remoter 
portions of the earth. 

It seems never to have occurred to these matter- 
of-fact, but necessarily contracted, people that the 
objections against foreign missions would admit of 
equal application to home missions. The effort to 
lead the great mass of Baptists in the States of the 
South to view the matter of missions as indivisible 
and worldwide has been a protracted one; indeed, 
in not a few localities the attempt up to this time 
has been utterly without avail. There are thousands 
of Baptists in the churches of the South who are 
misnamed missionary Baptists. 

The first organized effort in the South looking to 
evangelization began in the Charleston Association 
when John Gano was sent first to the Yadkin dis- 
trict of North Carolina, as a missionary. The pre- 
cedence of South Carolina Baptists in evangelistic 
enterprise has been perpetuated to the present. 
From the beginning they enjoyed the pre-eminence 
of a distinguished leadership — a leadership as de- 
voted as it was able. The churches of South Caro- 
lina have never receded from the high plane of 
beneficence to which they were led by Screven, Hart, 
and Furman. Even in advance of the great inter- 
est awakened in foreign missions by the conversion 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 181 

of Judson and Rice, Dr. Furman had shown com- 
mendable zeal in raising funds for the publication of 
the Bible translations of Carey and Marshman. 
The wisdom of Richard Furman was conspicuous 
in coupling with this praiseworthy labor that of 
seeking to stimulate, on the part of the pastors of 
that early period, a desire for better preparation for 
their work. His sagacity prompted him to look 
beyond immediate results in connection with this 
missionary movement — he desired to see the spirit 
becoming an abiding one. In order to that end, he 
sought to elevate the ministry while he strove to 
gather in contributions. The masterly manipulation 
of existing agencies which resulted in the constitu- 
tion of the South Carolina Baptist State Convention 
in 1821, is an evidence of the splendid leadership 
of Richard Furman. The Convention was founded 
upon the two-fold idea of ministerial education and 
missionary expansion. To the mind of Dr. Furman 
they were as inseparable as shadow and substance. 
When Luther Rice visited the South, urging with 
equal fervor education and missions, he found that 
he had been preceded in the advocacy of those asso- 
ciated ideas in at least one locality. 

Together, as yoke-fellows, Rice and Furman 
stood upon the floor of the Triennial Convention in 
Philadelphia, in 1817, in advocacy of these insepar- 
able interests. No one familiar with the Baptist 
denomination can fail to see the wisdom of these men 
of God in the equal urgency of the two claims. 



182 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Following close upon the organized efforts of the 
South Carolina Baptists were those of the denomi- 
nation in Georgia. Scarcely any organization was 
undertaken before the advent of Jesse Mercer. 
Like Furman, in the adjoining State, Mr. Mercer 
associated with the evangelization of the world an 
enlightened ministry. He was the prime mover in 
the formation of the famous Powelton Conferences, 
out of which grew the missionary and educational 
organizations of the Baptists of Georgia. These 
conferences were developed into the General Com- 
mittee, which was composed of members from each 
district Association in Georgia, with the distinct ob- 
ject in view of promoting State missions by organ- 
ized itinerant preaching, and to establish a school 
among the Creek Indians, who occupied the terri- 
tory stretching along the western confines of the 
State. These movements gradually led to the con- 
stitution of the State Convention and the founding 
of Mercer University. 

Abraham Marshall was made the chairman of the 
General Committee of Georgia, and Henry Hol- 
combe, secretary. A general address was issued di- 
rected, in part, to the Baptists of the State and 
partly to "all gospel ministers not of their order 
within this State [who] Avish the unity of the spirit 
in the bonds of peace." The first portion of the 
address related to the Baptist denomination, and was 
intended to explain the nature of the movement, 
and to invite co-operation in its furtherance. The 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 183 

second portion, addressed to the ministry of other 
denominations said : " With the greatest respect and 
affection, we invite you, Reverend Brethren, to an 
investigation in order to a scriptural adjustment of 
the comparatively small points in which we differ." 
Praiseworthy as this movement was, and sincere as 
were its promoters, it was impaired in the outset by 
the attempt . at denominational union. It failed 
equally in commanding the approbation of the Bap- 
tists and the members of other denominations. It 
really did not represent the prevailing sentiment of 
Baptists, and was repelled by the Pedobaptists. 
The invitation was responded to at the next meeting 
of the committee by two ministers of other denomi- 
nations, one a Methodist and the other an Episco- 
palian ; but the subject of denominational unity was 
never once referred to. Attention was henceforth 
devoted to missions and ministerial education. 

But the serious blunder committed in the outset 
in the attempted fusion of Baptists with other de- 
nominations alienated the rank and file of the Bap- 
tists throughout the State. Associations passed over 
the matter with ominous silence which indicated the 
grave suspicion that the Baptist denomination was 
being betrayed into the rankest open communionism. 
The members of the General Committee were never 
able to repair the blunder to the satisfaction of the 
denomination. This was followed by a period of 
inaction in the churches. But in 1813 there was a 
revival of interest in missions, originating in the 



184 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Savannah River Association. Under the lead of 
Dr. William B. Johnson advanced steps were taken 
in home evangelization, and it was also resolved, 
" That the churches be exhorted to use their best 
endeavors toward the support of foreign missions." 
This was immediately followed by the organization 
of a Baptist Foreign Mission Society in Savannah, 
of which Dr. William T. Brantley became the cor- 
responding secretary. A circular letter addressed 
to the Baptist Associations throughout Georgia suc- 
ceeded in arousing much missionary enthusiasm. It 
at once became manifest that if anything was to be 
accomplished there must be a more compact organ- 
ization. This necessity was so universally recognized 
that the General Association of Georgia was consti- 
tuted in 1822, and this led, five years later, to the 
formation of " The Baptist Convention for the State 
of Georgia." 

Repeated efforts had been made by the Baptists 
of Georgia to institute means to Christianize the In- 
dians whose tribes lay along both the eastern and 
western banks of the Chattahoochee River. At last, 
in 1823, an Indian Reform mission and school were 
established in the Creek nation at Withington sta- 
tion, about thirty miles south of the present site of 
Montgomery, Alabama. These interests were as- 
signed to the care of Rev. Lee Compere. 

These struggling efforts, however, do not represent 
all that was being accomplished by the Baptists of 
Georgia for during, this entire period, extending from 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 185 

the opening years of the century to 1827, and much 
later, they were generous contributors to the mission- 
ary enterprises of the denomination at large. Much 
skill was needed to generate a disposition to aid in 
the causes fostered by the denomination, but this 
was not wanting on the part of such leaders as 
Holcombe, Brantley, Mercer, Sherwood, Marshall, 
Sanders, and Kilpa trick. 

During the earlier years of the century, and 
within the period which followed immediately upon 
the great McGready revival, the condition of affairs 
was peculiar in North Carolina. From about 1812 
to 1832 there was a stagnant spirit among the 
churches of that State. They were possessed of 
sufficient energy and vitality, however, to resist the 
progress of missions, either local or foreign. During 
the period named, embracing not less than twenty 
years, there were not more than six thousand mem- 
bers added to the Baptist churches of North Carolina. 
An attempt was made about 1815 to arouse the 
churches from their stupor, and to effect an organ- 
ization for systematic missionary effort, but without 
avail. Josiah Crudup and Eobert T. Daniel, the 
recognized leaders of that time, were unable to arouse 
the slightest interest in missionary endeavor. 

Again, in 1826, an effort was made to create zeal 
in behalf of missions, which effort culminated in the 
constitution of a struggling organization known as 
the Baptist Benevolent Society, which in turn led to 
the formation of the North Carolina Baptist State 



186 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Convention. This organization was effected in a 
large barn, near the town of Greenville, on March 
20, 1830. The enterprise was the result of the 
wise direction and untiring zeal of Rev. Thomas 
Meredith, who prepared the constitution in advance 
of the meeting, and who had the satisfaction of 
seeing it adopted substantially as it came from 
his pen. 

The purpose of the young organization was 
plainly but forcibly presented in the second article 
of the constitution : 

The primary objects of this Convention shall be the 
education of young men called of God to the ministry 
and approved of by the churches to which they respec- 
tively belong, the employment of the missionaries within 
the limits of the State, and co-operation with the Bap- 
tist General Convention of the United States in the pro- 
motion of missions in general. 

A mere handful constituted this original body 
with full knowledge that such action would en- 
counter stout opposition. The means with which 
the proposed work was to be accomplished had yet 
to be created. Within the State there were at that 
date about fifteen thousand Baptists of all shades of 
belief. They received the announcement of the 
formation of the Convention with an indifference 
well-nigh appalling. But the courage which had 
nerved to the constitution of the body impelled to 
the establishment of plans for the consummation of 
the purposes proposed. With the utmost delibera- 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 187 

tion twelve men were appointed to canvass the 
State in the interest of the proposed objects of the 
Convention. Without compensation these men were 
to traverse the State in every direction and urge the 
claims of the Convention in the face of a most de- 
termined opposition. Mr. Meredith prepared an 
address which was to be sent to the Baptist churches 
throughout North Carolina, setting forth the object 
of the Convention and appealing for co-operation. 
The struggle was a severe one and the progress 
made not at all encouraging. But the promoters of 
the movement were prepared for the worst, and 
hence were not daunted by the resistance encountered. 
The step proved the starting-point of the develop- 
ment of the denomination in North Carolina, which 
development has continued until the State has be- 
come the third in numerical strength of the States 
composing the Southern Baptist Convention. From 
the churches of North Carolina have come many of 
the wisest and ablest of Baptist leaders, among 
whom may be named the Mercers, the elder Brant- 
ley, the elder Basil Manly, John Kerr, E. B. C. 
Howell, and A. M. Poindexter. 

The struggles of the Virginia Baptists both before 
and after the Revolution served to sink out of view 
their minor differences and to make them more 
cohesive. But the progress of the missionary spirit 
of that State was not unchecked by those opposed 
to missions. 



188 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

After the subversion of the Establishment under 
the auspices of the General Committee, another body 
was organized in 1800, known as the Committee 
of Correspondence. This last-named organization 
served somewhat as a Board in arousing interest in 
the matter of missions and the general direction of 
denominational affairs. The Committee of Corres- 
pondence lasted until 1823, when the General Asso- 
ciation of Virginia was organized. While the few- 
ness of numbers entering into this organization must 
not be altogether attributed to opposition to organ- 
ized effort in evangelistic enterprise, yet it was sig- 
nificant. Only fifteen delegates coming from a few 
Associations entered into the constitution of the Gen- 
eral Association. At the period of this organization 
there were not less than forty thousand Baptists 
and twenty district Associations in Virginia. R. B. 
Semple was chosen as the first president of the Gen- 
eral Association, and J. B. Jeter and Daniel Witt 
were appointed the first missionaries. These devoted 
men sought to accomplish two ends, that of convert- 
ing the masses in destitute regions and that of edu- 
cating the churches in the matter of missions. 

It was about this time that Alexander Campbell 
came into prominence as a doughty disputant ar- 
rayed against salaried ministers and organized mis- 
sionary effort. The public mind was greatly dis- 
tracted by the utterances and conduct of Mr. Camp- 
bell, who was withstood by Taylor, Jeter, Witt, 
and Semple. While Mr. Campbell succeeded in 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 189 

urging some to the adoption of his views, and in 
alienating others, the bulk of the denomination was 
brought into sympathy with the general work of 
the Baptists of the entire country. The Baptists 
of Virginia shared largely in the enthusiasm 
aroused by Luther Rice in behalf of Columbian 
College and the Burmese mission, and their leaders 
were conspicuous members of the Triennial Con- 
vention. 

As has been shown, the Baptists of Maryland 
have never been numerically strong, but they were 
among the first in the States of the South to ex- 
hibit a missionary spirit. As early as 1793 the 
Baltimore Baptist Association was constituted and 
soon put itself upon record as a missionary body. 
Eventually, however, there grew up an anti-mis- 
sionary spirit which continued to gain ground until 
1836, when by a majority of seven the anti-mis- 
sionary Baptists came into control of the Baltimore 
Association. By a vote of sixteen to nine, the As- 
sociation, in 1836, adopted resolutions against " unit- 
ing with worldly societies/' coupled with a declara- 
tion of non-fellowship with such as had done so. 
This meant a severance from all such agencies as 
missionary organizations, Sunday-schools, and Bi- 
ble, tract, and temperance societies. This action 
brought about a rupture and terminated the mis- 
sionary zeal of the Association. The organization 
through which the Baptists have expressed their in- 



190 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

terest in missions is the Maryland Baptist Union 
Association, which was organized as a distinctively 
missionary body in 1836. Into this body were 
gathered those who resisted the encroachments of 
the anti-missionary Baptists, and since its inception 
the Maryland Baptist Union Association has been 
an enthusiastic missionary body. 

At an early period Baptists recognized the ne- 
cessity of planting churches in the national capital. 
As early as 1802 a church was organized in Wash- 
ington, then a town struggling into life, with all 
the rude evidences of a frontier settlement, and 
with a scattered population of four thousand. Only 
six members entered into the constitution of the 
First Baptist Church, founded in Washington on 
March 7, 1802. For pastoral service and pulpit 
supply the infant church was forced to rely upon 
Rev. William Parkinson, who was then chaplain of 
Congress. 

Near the close of the year, an unpretentious 
meeting-house was built on the corner of I and 
Nineteenth Streets. For five years this struggling 
interest was forced to depend upon the chaplain to 
Congress for whatever of preaching or pastoral 
oversight it enjoyed. But in 1807 Rev. O. B. 
Brown assumed pastoral charge of the church and 
served it during the remarkable term of forty- 
three years. It was into this church that Spencer 
H. Cone entered as a member after his conversion 
and abandonment of the stage. From this church 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 191 

Mr. Cone received his license as a preacher. In 
1814, Hon. O. C. Coinstock, a member of Congress, 
joined the church, was baptized, and licensed to 
preach. The location of the church was changed in 
1833 to Tenth Street, where a new meeting-house 
was built. In 1859 the First and Fourth churches 
were united. Its pastors have been Messrs. Brown, 
Hill, Cole, Samson, Gillette, Cuthbert, and Stakely. 

The Second Church, sometimes called the Navy 
Yard Church, was constituted on June 10, 1810, be- 
ginning with a membership of only five. The first 
place of meeting of this small body was a diminutive 
frame building. It was in this little house that 
Spencer H. Cone began his career as a preacher. 
At that time Mr. Cone was a clerk in the Treasury 
Department, from which station he rose to the posi- 
tion of chaplain to Congress. The names of Lynd, 
Neale, Chapin, Maginnis, Poindexter, Bacon, 
Adams, Sydnor, Boston, and Cole, appear in the 
roll of the pastors of this church. 

These enterprises represent the interests founded 
in the national capital during the period now under 
review. It was with great difficulty that the Bap- 
tists were enabled to gain a permanent footing in 
Washington, and but for the loyalty and devotion 
of a few zealous men and women, Baptist settlement 
in the national capital would have been greatly 
delayed. 

Other interests than those already named have 
come into existence since the period now under con- 



192 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

sideration, but of these this is not the place to 
make mention. In their associational connection 
and missionary work, the Baptist churches of the 
District of Columbia are divided in membership 
between the Columbia Association and the Potomac 
Association, of Virginia. 

In the early periods of their history, the Baptists 
of Kentucky were a most enterprising folk, espe- 
cially in domestic missions. Their interest in gen- 
eral missionary work dates from the great revival 
of 1800. Prior to that time but little was at- 
tempted by the itinerant Baptist preachers of Ken- 
tucky beyond the borders of that State. Fired 
with the enthusiasm of the great revival of 1800 
which shook the State to its center, Baptist mission- 
aries extended their labors beyond the Ohio and 
into the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois on the 
north, and Tennessee on the south. 

According to Dr. J. M. Peck, Kentucky Baptists 
were the first Protestants to enter the State of Illi- 
nois. Rev. James Smith was the heroic missionary 
who essayed to cross the border into the wilderness 
which was afterward developed into that great 
State. While thus engaged, he fell into the hands 
of the Indians, from whom he was ransomed by his 
brethren for the sum of one hundred and seventy- 
five dollars. In 1801 the South Elkhorn Church 
sent a request to the Elkhorn Association " to send 
missionaries to the Indian nations." The matter 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 193 

received prompt attention by the appointment of a 
committee 

of five members to hear and to determine on the call of 
any of our ministers, and if satisfied therewith, to give 
them credentials for that purpose ; to set subscriptions 
on foot, to receive collections for the use of said mission ; 
and it is recommended to the church so to encourage 
subscriptions for said purpose, and have the money 
lodged with the deacons to be applied for that purpose 
whenever called for by the committee. The following 
brethren are appointed : David Barrow, Ambrose Dud- 
ley, John Price, Augustine Eastine, and George Smith. 

The result was that John Young was sent from the 
Elkhorn Association as a missionary to the Indians. 

As early as 1816, when the subject of foreign 
missions was being pressed upon the attention of 
the churches throughout the South, we find in Ken- 
tucky six missionary societies which were liberal 
contributors to the treasury of the Board at Phila- 
delphia. 

The churches of Kentucky having been blessed 
again with a remarkable revival in 1817, their at- 
tention seems to have been turned afresh to the 
matter of missions, for it was immediately followed 
by the creation of a school for Indian children near 
Georgetown. This was the work of the Kentucky 
Missionary Society, which gave to the new school 
the name of Choctaw Academy. This new interest 
prospered through a period of years, and sent out 
to the Indians of the far West two missionaries, 

N 



194 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Samson Birch and Robert Jones. Then came the 
period of distraction attendant upon the advent of 
Alexander Campbell. In close connection with Mr. 
Campbell was the appearance in that region of 
Daniel Parker, an illiterate but remarkable man, 
whose chief purpose seems to have been the destruc- 
tion of the missionary spirit among the churches. 
With all the confidence of ignorance he boldly as- 
serted the unscripturalness of missions, and chal- 
lenged to disputatious combat any who dared con- 
trovert his position. While Daniel Parker was 
thus engaged he was diligent also in the inculcation 
of the two-seed doctrine in the State. The com- 
bination of two such agencies as those of Campbell 
and Parker came well-nigh destroying the spirit of 
missions in the churches of Kentucky. In 1832 
the Baptist State Convention of Kentucky was or- 
ganized, but it was soon rent in pieces by internal 
dissension, and in 1836 was driven to dissolution. 
The following year, however, an effort was made to 
revive the suspended interest under the designation 
of the General Association of Kentucky Baptists, 
the organization being distinctively founded upon 
the idea of State evangelization. This cautious 
proceeding indicates that it was no longer prudent 
or possible to press the claims of foreign missions 
upon the churches. From being one of the most 
progressive of the States of the South in the prose- 
cution of missionary work, Kentucky became, for a 
period, one of the most actively aggressive States 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 195 

against it, so strong was the influence of Campbell 
and Parker. 

Tennessee shared largely in the same spirit. The 
Baptist churches of that State were among the first 
warmly to espouse the cause of missions in foreign 
parts, but this was followed by a most violent reac- 
tion. During the visit of Luther Rice to the State, 
the churches were greatly aroused upon missions, 
and for a season their zeal was ardent ; but there 
came a sudden turn, and the transformation was 
complete, the rankest opposition possible to missions 
coming to prevail. The churches suffered from this 
spiritual paralysis for a long period of years, even 
up to the outbreak of the war between the States. 
True, there were churches here and there through- 
out the State engaged in contributing to missions, 
but they were the exception and not the rule. Re- 
peated efforts were made to overcome this depres- 
sion, but they were unavailing. 

In Alabama, as in Tennessee, there was a strug- 
gle long and bitter between the missionary and anti- 
missionary Baptists, for the ascendency. The con- 
test was fiercest in the northern and eastern portions 
of the State, but no section was exempt from strife. 
The annual meeting of every district Association 
was the occasion of intense struggle between those 
who favored and those who opposed missions. 
Still, the more progressive elements of the de- 
nomination were active in local missionary work, 
and untiring in their efforts to cultivate benevolence 



196 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

on the part of the churches. The period of or- 
ganized evangelistic effort in Alabama dates from 
1816, when associational missionaries began work. 

In 1823 the State Convention was organized 
solely upon the basis of missions, and at once fifteen 
evangelists were sent into different portions of the 
State. They were everywhere met by hostile de- 
monstrations, but were resolute in the prosecution 
of their work. The leaders conspicuous at this 
period were Travis, Bestor, and Holcombe, the resi- 
dence of each of whom was respectively in the 
southern, central, and northern portions of the 
State. By concert of action they succeeded in 
maintaining sufficient organization to hold in check 
the opposition, and at the same time prosecute their 
work. 

Mississippi Baptists were among the last to con- 
stitute a general State organization. Previous to 
such organization, which took place in 1839, just a 
few years before the constitution of the Southern 
Baptist Convention, missionary work had been pros- 
ecuted throughout the State by local Associations. 
Considering the rapid growth of the population 
after the battle of New Orleans and the subsequent 
peace with Great Britain, and the difficulties en- 
countered in a new region, a most praiseworthy 
work was accomplished by the Baptists of Mississippi 
in the cultivation of the home field. 

The planting of the Baptist cause in Louisiana 



MISSIONS PRIOR TO THE SEPARATION 197 

was so entirely due to missionary effort in the midst 
of the most forbidding obstructions that it was 
natural for those brought into the churches under 
such conditions themselves to imbibe the missionary 
spirit. For many years identified with the Baptist 
organizations of Mississippi, the denomination in 
Louisiana at last began to become distinctive in its 
own local work. 

The constitution of Associations began as early as 
1818 when the Louisiana Association was organized. 
This was followed by the constitution of similar 
bodies on both sides of the Mississippi as the de- 
nomination expanded. The Louisiana State Con- 
vention was not organized until 1847 — two years 
after the constitution of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention. 

Thus it will be seen that during the long period 
extending from the Revolution to the organization 
of the Southern Baptist Convention the denomina- 
tion in the South was especially active in the work 
of local missions, and along the lines of advanced 
missionary effort. The rapid increase of population 
in the South made it necessary for much local effort 
to be expended. So important, emphatic, and long 
continued was this necessary work in the midst of a 
raw and incoherent population, that it became more 
difficult to divert attention to the equally important 
matter of world evangelization. Then it cannot be 
denied that the commercialism of the times acted 
as a serious hindrance to the fostering of missions. 



198 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

It is not easy to enlist the devotion of men in 
sacred work, the necessity of which is not visibly 
manifest, when these men are engrossed in subduing 
the harsher forces of nature, allured meanwhile by 
the prospect of great gain. To such the injunctions 
and admonitions of the pulpit respecting benevolence 
are regarded as being merely functional. These 
conditions may favor a spirit of worldliness and do, 
but proportionately they hinder the spirit of be- 
nevolence. 



CHAPTER VIII 

FORMATION OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVEN- 
TION 

THE Southern Baptist Convention was one of the 
direct effects of the agitation of the question 
of African slavery. Many years before the separa- 
tion took place between _ Northern and Southern 
Baptists, the question of slavery had been warmly 
discussed in Baptist circles and councils. Many of 
the largest owners of slaves in the South were Bap- 
tists who were eminent in denominational ranks. 
They were as pronounced and sincere in the defense 
of the institution of slavery as were the Baptists 
of the North in its denunciation. The counter- 
sentiment of the two sections grew commensurately 
during the last quarter preceding the outbreak of 
the Civil War. The agitation of the question in 
the columns of the journals both of the secular and 
religious press, on the platform, in the pulpit, and 
upon the floor of Congress, necessarily widened the 
breach between the North and South. As an insti- 
tution in the South, slavery assumed three phases — 
social, economic, and political. It had spent its 
force as a social institution by the year 1835, while 
to the end of its existence it continued to affect the 

199 



200 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

South economically. It was as a political agency 
that it was to effect the direst consequences. As 
such, it split in twain great ecclesiastical bodies and 
finally involved the country in bloody strife. 1 

The sway of wisdom and moderation in the 
councils of the Triennial Convention held in abey- 
ance for many years the passions of the less dis- 
creet. Except that now and then friction was pro- 
duced by some injudicious utterance or production, 
nothing occurred to mar the general harmony of the 
Baptist denomination of the United States until 
1844. This was due to the influence of wise and 
cool spirits who studiously suppressed all initial 
manifestations of bitterness. The purpose was 
clearly deliberate on the part of the denominational 
leaders, both of the North and South, to keep out of 
sight as far as possible this impending trouble. 
Up to 1844, Southern churches vied with those of 
the North in their contributions to the treasuries of 
the societies maintained by the Triennial Conven- 
tion. 

To some, however, it seemed clear that dissolu- 
tion was inevitable ; to others, it was equally clear 
that disruption could be averted. To the latter 
class belonged that princely leader, Eichard Fuller, 
who in 1844 offered in the Triennial Convention 
the following : 

Whereas, Some misapprehension exists in certain parts 
of the country as to the design or character of this Con- 

1 " Southern Side Lights," Edward Ingle, p. 262. 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 201 

vention, and it is most desirable that such misapprehen- 
sion should be removed ; therefore, Resolved, That this 
Convention is a corporation with limited powers for a 
specific purpose defined in its constitution ; and there- 
fore that its members are delegated to meet solely for the 
transaction of business prescribed by the said constitu- 
tion ; and that co-operation in this body does not involve 
nor imply any concert or sympathy as to any matters 
foreign from the object designated as aforesaid. 

The resolution was promptly seconded by Spencer 
H. Cone, of New York, and sustained by William 
Hayne, of Massachusetts, and J. B. Jeter, of Vir- 
ginia. But it was stubbornly resisted by Nathan- 
iel Colver, of Massachusetts, who expressed the 
desire that he be not handicapped respecting any 
matter that might come for consideration before 
the body. 

After some discussion, the resolution was with- 
drawn and the following was offered and adopted : 

Whereas, There exists in various sections of our 
country an impression that our present organization in- 
volves the fellowship of the institution of domestic- 
slavery, or of certain associations which are designed to 
oppose this institution ; Resolved, That in co-operating 
together as members of this Convention in the work of 
foreign missions, we disclaim all sanction, either ex- 
pressed or implied, whether of slavery or of anti- 
slavery ; but as individuals we are perfectly free both to 
express and to promote our own views on these subjects 
in a Christian manner and spirit. 

This evoked from Dr. Fuller upon the floor of the 



202 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Convention the expression that he was perfectly 
calm and dispassionate respecting slavery. While 
he was unconvinced that slavery was a sin, person- 
ally he considered it a great evil. He further said 
that in this opinion his brethren in the South did 
not share. He hoped and prayed that the institu- 
tion might be abolished. 1 

It was claimed by the pro-slavery advocates in 
the Baptist denomination in the South that just sub- 
sequent to the Triennial Convention for 1844, the 
Board of Foreign Missions procured the retirement 
from its service of Rev. John Bushyhead, a highly 
respected Indian Baptist preacher, because he was 
an owner of slaves. This created an impression 
throughout the South that slaveholders would not 
henceforth be admitted to appointment under the 
Board. During the same year, 1844, the famous 
controversy on slavery occurred between Wayland 
and Fuller. The latter replied to certain abolition 
expressions which appeared in the columns of the 
" The Christian Reflector," and in doing so quoted 
from Wayland's " Elements of Moral Science" to 
sustain the Southern view of the question against 
that expressed by the journal named. This called 
for a reply from Dr. Wayland, and thus the contro- 
versy began. The champions were the recognized 
leaders of thought in the denomination North and 
South. Both the ethical and scriptural grounds of 
the great question were passed under review, and 
i A. B. Newman, "Am. Church Hist," Baptist, Vol. II., p. 445. 



SOUTHEKN BAPTIST CONVENTION 203 

opposite conclusions were of course reached. The 
only good, perhaps, flowing from the controversy 
was an exhibition of a courteous and Christian 
spirit which distinguished it throughout. 

The discussion of the most serious features of 
the institution in so calm and courteous a manner 
served, for a season, to allay bitterness of feeling. 
But this was of brief duration. The secular press 
fed the flame of public excitement. The halls of 
Congress rang with oratory in the discussion of the 
many-sided subject. Occasions for division, though 
slight, were often magnified by the advocates of 
both sides of this burning question. Arguments 
flew to and fro like shots in battle. Any pro- 
nounced action on either side repelled at a greater 
distance the other. This was shown by the attri- 
bution of certain utterances to Dr. R. E. Pattison, 
the Home Secretary of the Boston Board, which 
utterances intimated that the Acting Board of the 
Triennial Convention would no longer tolerate the 
matter of slavery. It was these utterances which 
called forth the famous Alabama Resolutions. The 
matter was brought to the attention of the Alabama 
Baptist State Convention by a query from the 
Tuscaloosa Church, the authorship of which was 
attributed to Dr. Basil Manly, Sr. The query was 
presented thus : " Is it proper for us, at the South, 
to send any more money to our brethren at the 
North, for missionary and other benevolent pur- 
poses, before the subject of slavery be rightly under- 



204 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

stood by both parties ? " This was productive of sharp 
and decisive action. This query, together with a 
communication addressed to the Alabama Baptist 
Convention from the Georgia Baptist Convention, 
was referred to a committee of which Dr. Basil 
Manly, Sr., was chairman. The result of the com- 
mittee's action was embodied in the following reso- 
tions : 

Whereas, The holding of property in African Negro 
slaves has, for some years, excited discussion as a ques- 
tion of morals, between different portions of the Bap- 
tist denomination united in benevolent enterprise ; and 
by a large portion of our brethren is now imputed to 
the slaveholders in these Southern and Southwestern 
States as a sin at once grievous, palpable, and disquali- 
fying ; 

1. Resolved, . . . that when one party to a voluntary 
compact among Christian brethren is not willing to ac- 
knowledge the entire social equality with the other, as 
to all the privileges and benefits of the union, nor even 
to refrain from impeachment and annoyance, united 
efforts between such parties, even in the sacred cause of 
Christian benevolence cease to be agreeable, useful, or 
proper. 

2. Resolved, That our duty at this crisis requires us to 
demand from the proper authorities in all those bodies 
to whose funds we have contributed or with whom we 
have in any way been connected, the distinct, explicit 
avowal that slaveholders are eligible, and entitled 
equally with non-slaveholders, to all the privileges and 
immunities of their several unions ; and especially to 
receive any agency, mission, or other appointment 
which may run within the scope of their operations or 
duties. 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 205 

It was further insisted that in the event of 
the moral character of an applicant being chal- 
lenged, such question should be referred for settle- 
ment to the church of which he is a member. 
The transmission of future contributions to these 
societies was made contingent upon the satisfactori- 
ness of the answer given to these questions. 

The reply of the Foreign Mission Board was 
made in a similar strain. It says : 

In the thirty years in which the Board has existed, 
no slaveholder, to our knowledge, has applied to be a 
missionary. And as we send out no domestics or serv- 
ants, such an event as a missionary taking slaves with 
him, were it morally right, could not, in accordance 
with all our past arrangements or present plans, possi- 
bly occur. If, however, any one should offer himself as 
a missionary, having slaves, and should insist on retain- 
ing them as his property, we should not appoint him. 
One thing is certain, we can never be a party to any ar- 
rangement which would imply approbation of slavery. 

The critical reader cannot fail to discover certain 
caution and reservation in the deliverances from 
both quarters. The language is charged with a re- 
served force, and beneath the conventional courtesy 
there slumber the fires of determination. The de- 
liverance of the Alabama Baptist State Convention 
was the most decisive utterance that had up to this 
time emanated from either side. It is believed that 
the incisive character of the challenge did much to 
precipitate final separation. 



206 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Very soon practical emphasis was given to the 
position taken by the Home Mission Society by its 
refusal to appoint James E. Reeves, a missionary 
within the Tallapoosa Association, of Georgia. 
This refusal was made directly to the Executive 
Committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention and 
was based upon the ground that Mr. Reeves was a 
slaveholder. The Executive Committee, composed 
of J. L. Dagg, V. R. Thornton, J. B. Walker, 
Thomas Stocks, and B. M. Sanders, promptly in- 
structed the treasurer of the Convention to with- 
hold all funds from Northern societies until fur- 
ther instruction. This was followed by an address 
to the people of the United States, reciting in de- 
tail the action of the Home Mission Society. 

The hour for dissolution had come. One by one 
the Conventions of the Southern States began to 
withdraw. Along with them went the missionary 
auxiliary societies which had been such copious con- 
tributors to the Boards of the Triennial Convention. 
The Board of the Foreign Missionary Society of 
Virginia, suggested that the Baptists of the South 
be invited to meet in Augusta, Georgia, in May, 
1845, to indicate a course of action for the future. 
Meanwhile the national anniversaries of the de- 
nomination met at Providence, Rhode Island. The 
report of the committee appointed the year before 
by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to 
consider the subject of an amicable dissolution of 
said Society, was submitted. It was as follows : 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 207 

Whereas, The American Baptist Home Mission So- 
ciety is composed of contributors residing in slavehold- 
ing States ; and, Whereas The constitution recognizes no 
distinction among the members of the Society as to the 
eligibility of all the offices and appointments in the gift 
both of the Society and the Board ; and, Whereas, it has 
been found that the basis on which the Society was or- 
ganized is one upon which all the members and friends 
of the Society are now willing to act ; therefore, 

Resolved, That it is expedient that the members now 
forming the Society should hereafter act in separate or- 
ganizations at the South and at the North, in promoting 
the objects which were originally contemplated by the 
Society. 

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to report a 
plan by which the object contemplated in the preceding 
resolution may be accomplished in the best way and at 
the earliest period of time consistently with the preser- 
vation of the constitutional rights of all the members 
and with the least possible interruption of the mis- 
sionary work of the Society. 

The submission of this report gave rise to a pro- 
longed discussion. Prominent in the lead of this 
discussion was the able and conservative President 
Wayland. He threw the weight of his powerful 
influence against precipitate action in the matter of 
dissolution ; but extreme abolition sentiments on 
the part of Northern members and exacting de- 
mands on the part of members from the South 
proved more than a match even for Francis Way- 
land. The report was adopted and the hour for 
final severance had struck. The Alabama resolu- 
tions, to which answer had been made by the Exec- 



208 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

utive Committee of the Foreign Mission Board, 
were taken up and considered and the action taken 
by the committee was endorsed. This was the re- 
sult of a report of a committee of which President 
Wayland was chairman. The report was one that 
breathed conciliation throughout. It said : 

1. The spirit of the constitution of the General Con- 
vention, as well as the history of its proceedings from the 
beginning, renders it apparent that all the members of 
the Baptist denomination, in good standing, whether at 
the North or South, are constitutionally eligible to all 
appointments emanating either from the Convention or 
the Board. 

2. While this is the case, it is possible that contin- 
gencies may arise in which the carrying out of this prin- 
ciple might create the necessity of making appoint- 
ments by which the brethren of the North would either 
in fact, or in the opinion of the Christian community, 
become responsible for institutions which they could 
not, with a good conscience, sanction. 

3. Were such a case to occur, we should not desire 
our brethren to violate their convictions of duty by 
making such appointments, but should consider it in- 
cumbent on them to refer the case to the Convention 
for its decision. 

In the discussion of this vital question, involv- 
ing in great measure the benevolence of a large, in- 
fluential, and wealthy body of Christians, the ablest 
men of the denomination were engaged. It was 
not a time for heated or precipitate action. The 
utmost prudence and caution were needed. Much 
as dissolution was deplored, it seemed unavoidable. 



SOUTHEKN BAPTIST CONVENTION 209 

Conservatism was to be found in the ranks of the 
representatives of both sections. Could their coun- 
sel have prevailed, the rupture might not have 
come quite so early. But as it was, no continued 
co-operation could be had without a serious impair- 
ment of the necessary enthusiasm as well as of the 
copiousness of the benevolence on the part both of 
the North and of the South. Between the two sec- 
tions slavery had become a question of great irrita- 
tion. Bitterness was engendered with advancing 
time. The disturbing influence of slavery was felt 
in every sphere. It was next to impossible, with 
the country agitated as it was, for Northern aboli- 
tionists and Southern slaveholders to dwell together 
in unity. The quietness and wisdom with which 
these matters were dealt, and the type of Christian 
character displayed during these stormy times, re- 
flect the ability and nobility of the men engaged. 

Inevitable as the separation was between North- 
ern and Southern Baptists, it was, for some reasons, 
unfortunate. Had it not come, as it came, in 1844, 
it must needs have occurred in 1861. Though if it 
could have been delayed until 1861, the probability 
is that the dissolution would have been only a tem- 
porary one. While both sections have sustained 
loss by the severance, it can scarcely be denied that 
the South has suffered more. Considered from a 
calm and dispassionate point of view, it is clear that 
the South has suffered greatly by the loss of the 
conservatism which has attended the councils of 



210 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Northern Baptists. Not that the South has been 
without conservatism, for it has measurably pre- 
vailed in spite of the tension to which Baptist lib- 
erty in the South has been at times subjected. 
That which else might have verged upon denomina- 
tional dogma in some instances, has been counterbal- 
anced by the conservative sentiment of such States 
as Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. 
These Atlantic States have, since the formation of 
the Southern Baptist Convention, represented the 
cool conservatism in the Baptist councils of the 
South, and have saved the denomination from the 
very extreme from which it theoretically recoils. 

May 8, 1845, marks a memorable epoch in the 
history of Southern Baptists. In response to the 
call made for the assemblage of Baptist representa- 
tives from the South, three hundred and seventy- 
seven delegates met at the time named, in the city 
of Augusta, Georgia, for the purpose of forming 
the Southern Baptist Convention. These delegates 
were representatives from eight Southern States, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, and 
the District of Columbia. 

It was an occasion of great enthusiasm. Dr. W. 
B. Johnson, who had won distinction as a parlia- 
mentary officer in the Triennial Convention, was 
chosen president, Hon. W. Lumpkin, of Georgia, 
and Dr. J. B. Taylor, of Virginia, were elected 
vice-presidents, and Rev. Jesse Hartwell and Jame^ 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 211 

C. Crane were made secretaries of the new organ- 
ization. 

The genius of the body was voiced in a resolu- 
tion which was the result of the work of a com- 
mittee of two from each State. That resolution 
was as follows : 

That for peace and harmony, and in order to accom- 
plish the greatest amount of good, and for the mainte- 
nance of those scriptural principles on which the Gen- 
eral Missionary Convention of the Baptist denomination 
of the United States was originally formed, it is proper 
that this Convention at once proceed to organize for the 
propagation of the gospel. 

This was unanimously adopted. 

An elaborate address was prepared, and appealed 
" to the brethren of the United States ; to the con- 
gregations connected with the respective churches ; 
and to all candid men." The address opens with 
the frank statement : 

A painful division has taken place in the missionary 
operations of the American Baptists. We would explain 
the origin, the principles, and the objects of that division, 
or the peculiar circumstances in which the organization 
of the Southern Baptist Convention became necessary. 
Let not the extent of this disunion be exaggerated. At 
the present time it involves only the Foreign and Do- 
mestic Missions of the denomination. I^jorther n and 
Southern Baptists are still brethre n. They differ in no 
article of the faith. They are guided by the same prin- 
ciples of gospel order. Fanatical attempts have indeed 
been made, in some quarters, to exclude us of the South 



212 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

from Christian fellowship. We do not retort these at- 
tempts, and believe their extent to be comparatively 
limited. Our Christian fellowship is not, as we feel, a 
matter to be obtruded upon any one. We abide by that 
of our God, his dear Son, and all his baptized followers. 
The few ultra Northern brethren to whom we allude 
must take what course they please. Their conduct has 
not influenced us in this movement. We do not regard 
the rupture as extending to foundation principles, nor 
can we think that the great body of our Northern breth- 
ren will so regard it. Disunion, however, has proceeded 
deplorably far. The first part of our duty is to show 
that its entire origin is with others. 

Then follows a statement of the successive events 
which gradually contributed to the formation of the 
Southern Baptist Convention. In this was set forth 
the charge that the Triennial Convention had broken 
with the principles upon w hich it was founded. The 
address declares concerning the original document 
which was the basis upon which the Convention w r as 
established : " Its constitution knows no difference 
between slaveholders and non-slaveholders." The 
address further declares that the members of the 
Southern Baptist" Convention had not severed from 
the constitution " of the original union." It further 
claims that the founders of the Southern Baptist 
Convention had " acted in the premises with liber- 
ality" toward "the brethren of the North." Says 
the same document, " Thrust from the platform of 
equal rights between the Northern and Southern 
churches, we have but reconstructed that platform." 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 213 

A little further on the emphatic declaration is 
made: 

We will not practically leave it on any account, much less 
in obedience to such usurped authority, or in deference 
to such a manifest breach of trust as is here involved ; a 
breach of covenant that looks various ways, heavenward 
and earthward. For we repeat, They would forbid us 

TO SPEAK UNTO THE GENTILES. 

Then follows a declaration which involves a firm 
purpose to preach the gospel everywhere. Thus is 
presented in analytical detail, the causes of the 
separation, the principles of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, and its objects. The elaborate address 
concludes : 

In parting with our beloved brethren and coadjutors 
in this cause we could weep, and have wept, for ourselves 
and for them ; but the season as well of weeping as of 
vain jangling is, we are constrained to believe, just now 
past. For years the pressure of men's hands have been 
upon us far too heavily. Our brethren have pressed 
upon every inch of our privileges and our sacred rights, 
but this shall only urge our gushing souls to yield pro- 
portionately of their renewed efforts to the Lord, to the 
church universal, and to a dying world ; even as water 
pressed from without, rises but the more within. Above 
all, the mountain pressure of our obligations to our God, 
even our own God ; to Christ, and to him crucified ; and 
to the personal and social blessings of the Holy Spirit 
and his influences, shall urge our little streams of the 
water of life to flow forth ; until every wilderness and 
desolate place within our reach (and what extent of the 
world's wilderness, wisely considered, is not within our 



214 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

reach ?) shall be glad, even as this passing calamity of 
division ; and the deserts of unconverted human nature 
rejoice and blossom as the rose. 

Two general Boards called the Domestic Mission 
Board and the Foreign Mission Board were formed 
and located respectively at Marion, Alabama, and 
Richmond, Virginia. A vice-president for each of 
the two Boards was appointed from each State repre- 
sented in the Convention. The meetings were ap- 
pointed to be held triennially after the manner of 
the original convention of the United States. Rich- 
mond, Virginia, was named as the next place of 
meeting, and June 10, 1846, as the date. This 
done and the first session of the Southern Baptist 
Convention adjourned. 

Although these devoted men had counted the 
cost of such an immense undertaking, the contem- 
plation of their grave responsibilities weighed upon 
their spirits like the burden of the Lord upon the 
prophets of olden time. 






CHAPTER IX 

WOEK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 

WHEN they set themselves to organize the work 
of the new Convention, the founders were 
embarrassed with unavoidable complications. It 
was not an easy task for the churches, Associations, 
and State Conventions to sever at one blow the ties 
which bound them to the Triennial Convention, and 
at once adjust themselves to new conditions. 

It was clear, from the beginning, that the peculiar 
circumstances which invested the newly constituted 
body would forbid a speedy entrance upon the pro- 
posed work. One of the peculiar features was that 
connected with the missionaries already upon the 
field. Some of these were Southerners, but they 
had been laboring under the auspices of the Trien- 
nial Convention. Would they be invited to sever 
their connection with the parent body, and place 
themselves under the care of the new Convention? 
Even should they do so, would the Southern Con- 
vention assume the work thus begun by the parent 
body? Would this not be an additional occasion 
for friction and prolonged disturbance ? 

All these suggestions came to the sober-minded 
leaders who recognized the necessity of an organiza- 

215 



216 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

tion distinct from the Triennial Convention. These 
difficulties had been considered in advance, and were 
not discovered after the bridges had been burned. 
Relief was sought, so far as the Southern-born mis- 
sionaries were concerned r by a proposal to the North- 
ern Board to enter into partnership in the work on 
foreign fields ; but the Northern Board wisely de- 
clined any such possibility of future complication. 
Finally the settlement of the question was left to 
the foreign missionaries themselves. If they should 
desire to remain under the old Board, well ; if not, 
they would be cordially received by the Southern 
Board. 

But slight extrication from prevailing difficulties 
was found by the close of the first year of the Con- 
vention. At the appointed time the delegates met 
in Richmond. The meeting was one of dignity and 
decorousness. About one hundred and fifty dele- 
gates responded to their names. Representatives 
were present from the American and Foreign Bible 
Society, The American Sunday-school Union, The 
American Baptist Publication Society, and the 
General Association of Kentucky, all of which in- 
dicated a willingness to fraternize the members of 
the new Convention, and as far as practicable to co- 
operate with them. 

The delegates addressed themselves to work with 
a solemnity befitting the occasion. This is indicated 
by a series of solemn resolutions offered early in the 
session, from which the following is an extract : 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 217 

Resolved, That before the final vote upon questions of 
vital importance (and at such other times as may be 
deemed suitable by the body), the business of the Con- 
vention shall be suspended, and prayer offered up to 
Almighty God for the guidance of his Spirit. 

No little enthusiasm was awakened by the pres- 
ence of Rev. J. L. Shuck, missionary to China, 
and Yong Seen Sang, a native Chinaman, who had 
been converted and had accompanied Mr. Shuck to 
America. Mr. Shuck had been in the employment 
of the Northern Board, but now accepted appoint- 
ment under the Foreign Board of the Southern 
Baptist Convention. Thomas Simmons, recently 
returned missionary from Burma, was also present 
during the session. The China mission was rein- 
forced by the appointment of the additional mission- 
aries, S. C. Clopton and George Pearcy. 

In consideration of the difficulties which invested 
them, the members of the Convention found occa- 
sion for gratitude in that they had been able to ac- 
complish so much during the preceding year. The 
provisional Boards, both foreign and domestic, had 
done well. The Foreign Board reported collections 
to the amount of seventeen thousand seven hundred 
and thirty-five dollars, while the Domestic Board 
closed the year with thirteen thousand one hundred 
and ninety -three dollars, some of which amount 
consisted of pledges. In order to facilitate its work 
among the churches, the Foreign Board had insti- 
tuted an organ of communication known as " The 



218 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Southern Missionary Journal," which afterward be- 
came " The Foreign Mission Journal." In its first 
report the Domestic Mission Board showed a com- 
mendable spirit of enterprise by proposing to plant 
mission stations along the Pacific coast, the shores 
of California, and southward into Mexico. That 
portion of the report was not adopted, however, for 
fear of arousing suspicion of political combinations. 
One of the distinctive features of the proceedings 
of this session was the proposal to increase the 
facilities for Christianizing the Southern slaves. 
The belief being prevalent that a white man would 
not be able to endure the climate of Western Africa, 
it was deemed wise to send thither at least ten 
colored missionaries from the South, and to main- 
tain such a force all the while. The attitude of the 
Baptists of the slave States to the Negro in 1846 
may be judged by the following, which was earnestly 
-adopted : 

Resolved, That in view of the present condition of the 
African race, and in view of the indications of Divine 
Providence toward that portion of the great family of 
fallen men, we feel that a solemn obligation rests not 
only upon the Convention, but upon all Christians, to 
furnish them with the gospel and a suitable Christian 
ministry. 

The Convention adjourned in the midst of hope- 
fulness and enthusiasm, and yet with a profound 
sense of the grave responsibility assumed. The 
evangelization of a large portion of the American 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 219 

Union had been undertaken. A full share of the 
work in foreign fields would have to be assumed by 
the new body. Vast sums of money would have 
to be raised and wisely disbursed in the accomplish- 
ment of these purposes. But the spirit of the Rich- 
mond Convention afforded a guarantee of ultimate 
success. A basis was laid for extensive work. A 
Foreign Board, duly equipped, was permanently lo- 
cated at Richmond, Virginia, and a Board of Do- 
mestic Missions was fixed at Marion, Alabama. A 
committee was appointed " to consider and report 
upon the expediency of organizing Boards of man- 
agers for Bible and publication operations." 

Steps were at once taken to occupy the destitute 
territory of the home field as early as practicable. 
Florida and Texas were, at this time, most inviting 
fields for missionary endeavor. Into the former of 
these States a few Baptists entered as early as the 
first quarter of the century, and a Baptist church 
was established, the first in the State, as early as 
1825, in the county of Jackson. Governmental 
liberality and protection gained for these new States 
large accessions of population, which were scattered 
in widely separated settlements over broad areas. 
Toward such regions as these the Domestic Mission 
Board directed its energies and resources, leaving 
local destitution to be cared for by the district As- 
sociations and State Conventions. As rapidly as it 
could the Board followed in the wake of the ad- 
vancing rank of population as it pressed westward. 



220 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Even as early as 1846, Mexico, as a missionary 
field, was challenging the attention of Southern 
Baptists. 

The defined work of the new Convention was 
the evangelization of the frontier regions of the 
South, giving the gospel to the slaves, Christianizing 
the Indians of the Territories, colportage operations, 
and the extension of missionary work in foreign 
fields. Vigorous activity in the new regions of the 
South, which were thickening with a frontier popu- 
lation, was not begun too early by the Southern 
Baptist Convention. As the Domestic Mission 
Board sought to draw to its allegiance the interior 
churches of the South, it encountered much diffi- 
culty. Church independency was asserted even in 
the district Associations, and more vehemently in 
regard to the State Conventions, and when it came 
to an invited acquiescence with the general Boards 
it seemed the nethermost of centralization, and 
many openly protested. Indeed, that spirit has not 
altogether departed from many interior churches in 
the South to this day. The expanding strength of 
the Boards of the Southern Baptist Convention is 
due to the increasing acquiescence of the churches 
of the South, and it is proper to state that this ac- 
quiescence has been proportionate to the growing 
efficiency of the Southern Baptist ministry. 

Through the years, from the formation of the 
Southern Baptist Convention to the present, there 
has been in progress in the South what is known in 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 221 

modern political phraseology as an " educational 
campaign." In the presentation of the respective 
claims of the two Boards the advantage has been 
on the side of the Domestic Board, the visible 
achievements of which in the new settlements of 
the South have been all along strikingly manifest. 
The Foreign Board was forced to await a fuller 
development of missionary sentiment for the culti- 
vation of which it is in no small measure indebted 
to its twin sister — the Domestic Mission Board. 

In the early history of the Convention there was 
a great demand for patience, energy, sagacity, and 
spiritual devotion. The territory covered by the 
Convention was vast, embracing fourteen large 
States, with an aggregate area of nine hundred and 
fifty-five thousand six hundred and sixty-four square 
miles, and with a population of eight millions, a 
large portion of which was rural in character, and 
thoroughly unevangelized. To reach this mass 
there were at the period of the formation of the 
Convention about two thousand Baptist preachers 
of all grades and classes in the States of the South. 
Only a few of this number were thoroughly edu- 
cated, while many could barely read. Others were 
superannuated, and hundreds of them were partly 
or altogether secularized, and were employed as 
teachers, physicians, merchants, farmers, mechanics, 
and lawyers. These were unevenly distributed 
throughout the South. In the older States they 
were more efficient ; in the newer, they were alto- 



222 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHER^ STATES 

gether unequal to the demands of the prevailing 
conditions. «-" ■* 

Up to the period under discussion, Baptists were 
almost entirely confined to the country. Not until 
a later period in Southern history, when towns and 
cities began to spring up and to grow, did many of 
the most select elements of the rural population 
begin to resort to these thriving centers. Baptists 
being generally the dominant folk in the rural 
regions, many representatives of that denomination 
removed to the centers to improve their fortunes. 
These of course were formed into churches. In the 
selection of pastors they sought for those who' were 
the peers of the occupants of the pulpits of other 
denominations. This gave increased emphasis to 
the matter of ministerial education, and made neces- 
sary the establishment of a theological seminary. 
Inasmuch as the Baptists of the South were almost 
altogether restricted to the country districts, it was 
fortunate that many of their ablest ministers insisted 
upon remaining in the country, though often 
tempted by city churches, to become their pastors. 
Some of these cultured gentlemen were owners of 
plantations and large bodies of slaves, and they pre- 
ferred the independence of country life to the most 
inviting city pulpits. Some, like Andrew Broaddus, 
of Virginia, persistently declined the most urgent 
and tempting calls to the city, preferring the easy 
conventionalities of rural life and worship. One 
such man, here and there, was a tower of strength 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 223 

in an educational process such as the Southern 
churches were at that time passing through. The 
circle of the influence of such a man was immense, 
and at a time like the one under consideration, most 
salutary. 

When the detached work of evangelization was 
undertaken, it was found that, in some regions of 
the South, white inhabitants of matured age had 
never heard the gospel preached. Colporters found 
white adults of both sexes who had never heard a 
sermon nor seen a minister of Christ. 

The work of the organization of the incoherent 
elements, especially of the new States of the South, 
was slow and tedious. The Convention was most 
deliberate in its choice of officials for its Boards. 
The corresponding secretaryship of the Domestic 
Board was first tendered to J. L. Reynolds, 
but he declined to accept it. D. P. Bestor was 
next invited to the charge of the interest, but he 
frankly declined because he did not regard himself 
suited to such a position. R. Holman was then 
called upon and accepted the position. Upon his 
retirement from the service of the Board, Joseph 
Walker was chosen to succeed him. When Mr. 
Walker resigned, Mr. Holman was recalled to the 
office of the secretaryship, and successfully con- 
ducted the affairs of the Board to the beginning of 
the Civil War. M. T. Sumner was the next secre- 
tary, and for almost a score of years gave success- 
ful direction to the affairs of the Domestic Mission 



224 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Board. Having resigned, W. H. Mcintosh was 
elected secretary, which position he held until the 
removal of the Board to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1882, 
when I. T. Tichenor became secretary. 

The zeal and ability with which the affairs of the 
Southern Baptist Convention were conducted from 
the beginning are seen in the results of the work of 
its agencies. For instance, during the first thirteen 
years of the career of the Domestic Mission Board, 
the contributions were seven times greater than 
those contributed to the American Baptist Home 
Mission Society by the same States during the thir- 
teen years just preceding the organization of the 
Southern Baptist Convention. The Board served 
to give an impulse to every department of denomi- 
national work by impressing the churches with a 
sense of enlarged responsibility, and by arousing 
greater confidence in the possibility of an early 
evangelization of the South. Active agencies kept 
the matter fresh before the churches, and in pro- 
portion to the excitement of interest, the anti-mis- 
sionary barriers gave way. Harmonious co-oper- 
ation between the Domestic Board and the churches 
opened the way to a fair consideration of the claims 
of the Foreign Board. 

Keeping pace with the tide of population which 
moved steadily westward, the Domestic Board was 
enabled to establish churches in the inception of 
such centers as Houston and Galveston, Texas, 
while older cities, like New Orleans, were entered 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 225 

and interests were planted. Likewise in Arkansas 
and Missouri successful work was accomplished by 
the Domestic Board. Southward also, into Florida, 
the attention of the Board was directed. Seizing 
such commercial points as Key West and Tampa in 
that State of growing importance, the interior of 
the State was more easily reached. The evangeli- 
zation of Florida was largely procured through the 
agency of the Domestic Board. In occupying the 
State, the Board was fortunate in finding a few or- 
ganizations, such as the Florida Association, which 
was constituted in 1841, as these furnished a van- 
tage-ground for aggressive action. Eventually the 
Indians came under the fostering care of the Do- 
mestic Board, which still supplies them with mis- 
sionaries. A summary of the work accomplished 
by the Domestic Board from 1845 until 1861, the 
period of the outbreak of civil strife, was, the ap- 
pointment of seven hundred and fifty missionaries, 
the adding of fifteen thousand members to the 
churches, the erection of two hundred meeting- 
houses, the constitution of two hundred new 
churches, and the collection and disbursement of 
three hundred thousand dollars. 1 

The activity of the Board was, of course, crip- 
pled during the Civil War, during which time it di- 
rected its attention to the evangelization of the 
Southern armies. Here its success was as signal 

^r. A. H. Newman, "Amer. Church Hist., Baptist," Vol. 
II., p. 455. 



226 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

as it had been upon the fields of peace. Among 
those whom the Board employed as army evangel- 
ists were such distinguished men as I. T. Tichenor, 
E. W. Warren, J. B. Hawthorne, R. Holman, W. 
C. Buck, A. D. Sears, J. J. D. Renfroe, A. E. Dick- 
inson, and J. L. Reynolds. 

The Board shared in the general depression 
which immediately succeeded the Civil War, and 
in its gradual resuscitation had to rely chiefly upon 
the border States of Maryland, Kentucky, and 
Missouri. New vigor was given it upon its re- 
moval to Atlanta. Dr. I. T. Tichenor was induced 
to leave the presidency of the Agricultural and Me- 
chanical College of Alabama to assume the secre- 
taryship of the Board. As an indication of the 
fresh vitality infused into the Board there were 
thirty-six missionaries employed in 1881-1882, the 
year before its removal, ninety-five in 1883, one 
hundred and forty-four in 1884, one hundred and 
eighty-seven in 1885, two hundred and fifty-five 
in 1886, two hundred and eighty-seven in 1888, 
three hundred and twenty-four in 1889, and four 
hundred and six in 1891. Perhaps in no particular 
has the Board rendered more signal service than its 
agency in the creation of State mission Boards 
throughout the South, for these were the direct out- 
growth of the work of the Home Board. 1 In many 
instances, these local organizations have been so ef- 

!The name was changed to that of Home Mission Board in 
1873. 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 227 

ficient as to obviate the necessity of further opera- 
tion of the Home Board in a number of the States. 
A passing allusion has been made to the work of 
the Home Board among the Indians of the West. 
Fragments of original tribes still linger upon the 
western confines of our country to which the Home 
Board has been for many years devoted. Astonishing 
results have been achieved by the missionaries who 
have borne the gospel to the red men. Speaking 
of the Indians, Secretary Tichenor says in one of 
his reports : 

The membership among them in proportion to popu- 
lation is now equal to that of our strongest Baptist 
States. They have been reclaimed from barbarism. 
They support a well-organized government. They have 
opened farms, builded houses, established schools, and 
are prepared, if they so desired, to enter this great fed- 
eration of States as a constituent member. Within the 
Indian Territory there are now sixteen Associations and 
three hundred and one churches, with a membership of 
thirteen thousand eight hundred and forty-four. 

What was said of the work of the Board in 
Florida may be said equally of Texas. When the 
Home Board entered this wild region west of the 
Mississippi, there was a thinly scattered and mixed 
population in Texas ; to-day the State has a Bap- 
tist membership of one hundred and eleven thou- 
sand one hundred and thirty-eight. 

During the later years of its history the Board 
has accomplished remarkable results through its 



228 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Cuban Mission. A captain in the insurgent army 
during the rebellion of 1868-73 was surrounded by 
a body of Spanish troopers upon a tongue of land 
that protruded into the waters of the gulf. Prefer- 
ring the casualties of the deep to the apprehended 
cruelty of the Spanish soldiery, the captain with 
his sole companion seized a drifting plank and the 
two were borne far out at sea. Through a long 
dark night they were the plaything of the billows. 
The dawn of day found them still clinging to the 
friendly plank. Sick and exhausted the captain's 
companion relaxed his hold and rolled into the 
waters a dead man. Stretching himself as best he 
could across the supporting timber, the captain him- 
self sank into unconsciousness and when he awoke 
found himself on board a fishing-boat, the crew of 
which had picked him up. Being conveyed to New 
York in a vessel to which he was transferred from 
the smaller boat, he became violently ill of pneu- 
monia and was taken to a hospital where his case 
was pronounced hopeless. The youthful Cuban ap- 
pealed strongly to the sympathy of Miss Alice 
Tucker, a young Christian woman, who led him to 
Christ by means of a Spanish New Testament. 
Baptized in the Willoughby Avenue Church, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., Alberto J. Diaz returned to his native 
land to preach the newly found truth. 

Though rejected at first by kindred and friends, 
he continued to preach to the Cubans while he en- 
gaged in the practice of medicine, the art which he 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 229 

had acquired before leaving New York. In spite 
of persecution he laid under tribute every available 
agency for the furtherance of the truth on the is- 
land. A Baptist mission on the Florida coast at 
Key West, established in the interest of refugee 
Cubans attracted the attention of Diaz, which re- 
sulted in the establishment of a correspondence be- 
tween him and Secretary Tichenor. Mutual in- 
terest led to the incorporation of Cuba into the 
field of the Home Mission Board. This action fur- 
nished the occasion of much enthusiasm on the 
part of Southern Baptists, which was equaled alone 
by the enthusiasm of the Cubans in behalf of their 
distinguished young countryman. Taking practi- 
cal advantage of the prevailing interest in the Cu- 
ban mission throughout the South, Secretary Tich- 
enor purchased a large theatre building at Havana, 
at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars, and con- 
verted it into a church. In addition to this interest 
there have been established by the Board a school 
for girls and a hospital for women. The mission in 
Cuba was achieving extraordinary results until the 
outbreak of the rebellion in 1895. In April, 1896, 
Diaz was arrested and no doubt would have been 
summarily dealt with but for demonstrations in his 
behalf throughout the South and to a large extent 
throughout the Union. 

Another feature of the Home Mission Board is 
that of planting mission stations in such of the 
cities of the South as demand them. This is re- 



230 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ceiving notable emphasis in New Orleans. Here 
it has steadily fostered the work in the midst of 
prevailing difficulties and has been instrumental 
in maintaining permanent worship at the three 
Baptist strongholds of the city — Coliseum Place, 
First, and Valence Street Churches. For a num- 
ber of years the Board published an organ known 
as " The Home Field/' which was consolidated 
with the " Foreign Mission Journal" in 1895, 
under the direction of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention ; but in 1896 the Convention again disso- 
ciated the journalistic interests of the two Boards, 
and left them to their discretion concerning the 
adoption of organs for the future. The result was 
that the Foreign Board re-established " The Foreign 
Mission Journal," while the Home Board proposed 
to adopt the columns of the State denominational 
papers as a medium of communication with the 
masses of the people. In entering upon its special 
work in 1845, the Foreign Mission Board was re- 
lieved of much embarrassment by finding a field al- 
ready open by reason of the peculiar relations 
which certain missionaries in China and Africa sus- 
tained to the Baptists of the South. Messrs. J. L. 
Shuck and I. J. Roberts, as a matter of choice per- 
sonal to themselves, were transferred from the 
Northern Board to the Foreign Board of the South- 
ern Baptist Convention. 

The difficulties encountered by the Foreign Board 
in gaining headway in the South have already been 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 231 

noticed. Especially in the early stages of its his- 
tory, it was largely dependent upon the missionary 
enlightenment imparted through the Home Board. 
During the first eighteen years of its history, the 
Foreign Board sent out twenty-two missionaries, 
viz. : Messrs. Clopton, James, Gaillard, Holmes, 
Bond, Roberts, Tobey, Whilden, Johnson, Shuck, 
Pearcy, Cabaniss, Burton, Yates, Crawford, Schiel- 
ding, Hartwell, and Graves, together with Mrs. 
Shuck, Mrs. Graves, Mrs. James, Mrs. Whilden, 
Mrs. Bond, and Miss Baker. Within the period 
named five had died upon the field, Messrs. Clop- 
ton, James, Gaillard, Holmes, and Bond. Mrs. 
Whilden, Mrs. Shuck, Mrs. James, and Mrs. Bond 
had also passed away, and Mr. Roberts had retired 
from the service of the Board. Eight had returned 
permanently to America, viz., Messrs. Tobey, 
Whilden, Johnson, Shuck, Pearcy, Cabaniss, Bur- 
ton, and Miss Baker. The China mission would 
have been reinforced in 1861 by three others, but 
the outbreak of the war interfered with their sail- 
ing. During the period named twelve missionaries 
were maintained upon the field : Messrs. Yates, 
Crawford, Schieling, Hartwell, and Graves, with 
their wives, together with Mrs. Gaillard and Mrs. 
Holmes. Meanwhile the labors of several native 
assistants were being enjoyed. 

The first points occupied by the Board were 
Canton and Shanghai, to which were subsequently 
added the stations of Shin-Hing, Chefu, and Tung 



232 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Chow. In addition to preaching the gospel, the 
missionaries were engaged in the establishment and 
direction of schools, the erection of chapels, and the 
distribution of literature. Tours were frequent into 
the interior of the empire, where the gospel was 
preached to many thousands. During the first 
eighteen years of the operations of the Board in 
China, more than one hundred converts had been 
received, but the faithful labors of the missionaries 
were regarded as prospective rather than as imme- 
diate in their results. 

From 1849 to 1863 there had been appointed 
sixteen missionaries to Yoruba, Africa. In 1849 
Missionary J. F. Bowen had founded this original 
mission in Africa and had opened the way for future 
operation. Among the earliest of the appointments 
of the Board upon the African field was Missionary 
Harden, a devoted colored preacher at Lagos, and 
Messrs. Goodale and Denmore, together with Mrs. 
Denmore, Mrs. Beid, and Mrs. Phillips, who died 
upon the mission field in Africa. Of the sixteen 
just alluded to, two were prevented from sailing. 
This reduced the force of the African Mission to 
Messrs. Harden and Stone and their wives, together 
with Messrs. Keid and Phillips. Missionary sta- 
tions had been established at Lagos, Abbeokuta, 
Ijaye, Ogbomishaw, and Awyaw. Up to 1863 the 
missionaries upon the African field could number 
about fifty converts. Meanwhile an effort was made 
to found a mission in Brazil, and J. T. Bowen was 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 233 

assigned to that new field, but broken health forced 
him to abandon it. Early in the sixties arrange- 
ments were made for the establishment of a mission 
in Japan, and Messrs. C. H. Toy, Johnson, and 
Rhorer were appointed to that new field, but the 
Civil War interfered with the sailing of the first 
two, and the third perished at sea. The mission 
was abandoned until 1889. 

The Liberian Mission had been the most fruitful 
in its results. It was among the earliest ventures 
of the Board, and was conducted almost exclusively 
by colored missionaries, though the Board had com- 
missioned tw T o white preachers, Messrs. Ball and 
Kingdon, as special assistants to the work of the 
mission. Mr. Kingdon soon fell a martyr to the 
cause, as the African climate was entirely too severe 
for his constitution. 

Up to 1863 twenty-four stations had been estab- 
lished in foreign parts by the Board, and twenty 
pastors and twenty-six teachers had been employed. 
Twelve hundred members had been gathered into 
all the churches upon the foreign field, and seven 
hundred pupils had been brought into the schools. 
This indicates the first work accomplished by the 
Board, and represents the period up to the closing 
of the Southern ports and the consequent suspension 
of communication with the outside world. It was 
a period of darkness and perplexity to the Board 
when, as a result of the great American war, its 
missionaries, laboring upon two distant continents, 



234 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

could not be communicated with. In China the 
missionaries were not only perplexed by the sever- 
ance of communication with their native land be- 
cause of an American War, but were harassed also 
by a prevailing Chinese war. With characteristic 
courage, Mr. Crawford, one of the devoted mission- 
aries, wrote : " War or no war, the mission must go 
on. We can live notwithstanding the wars of China 
and America." Taking advantage of their positions, 
the Baptists of Maryland and of Kentucky trans- 
mitted funds, from time to time, to the members of 
the Chinese Mission. By means of this help and the 
makeshifts which the missionaries in China were en- 
abled to adopt, they tided over the period covered by 
the years of conflict. The most formidable foe en- 
countered by the missionaries of the Southern Board 
during this trying period was the Asiatic cholera, 
which served greatly to enhance the difficulties aris- 
ing from the two wars from which the missionaries 
suffered. It was a dismal period for the China Mis- 
sion — congregations were scattered, schools broken 
up, chapels burned, and one of the most devoted of 
the missionaries, J. L. Holmes, was murdered near 
Chefu. 

With the restoration of peace came the enlarge- 
ment of the missionary operations of the Foreign 
Board. After mature deliberation, the Board re- 
solved upon the establishment of a mission in Italy 
in 1870. Dr. W. N. Cote, the son of a converted 
Roman Catholic priest, was the pioneer missionary 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 235 

to Italy. He succeeded in baptizing twelve con- 
verts during the first year of the mission, and near 
the close of the year was prepared to organize at 
Kome a Baptist church with eighteen members. 
Dr. John A. Broadus, who was at that time making 
a European tour, and was present at the organiza- 
tion of this original church, wrote from Rome in 
January, 1871 : "I am thoroughly satisfied that 
the Board has acted wisely in establishing this mis- 
sion, and I should exclaim vehemently against any 
idea of abandoning it." In 1873, Dr. Geo. B. Tay- 
lor, of Virginia, was appointed superintendent of 
Italian missions. He succeeded in opening a hand- 
some chapel in Rome, in 1878, costing twenty-seven 
thousand dollars, since which time regular services 
have been held in that city. In November, 1880, 
Rev. J. H. Eager, of Mississippi, was sent to rein- 
force Dr. Taylor. The situation in Italy was por- 
trayed thus by Mrs. Eager in 1887 : 

Before 1848 there was not one publicly declared Evan- 
gelical in the whole of Italy, except in the Waldensian 
Valleys. From 1848 to 1859, the gospel was preached 
in Piedmont only. Until 1870 not one Roman dared 
proclaim himself Evangelical, and no foreign Protestant 
could worship within the walls of Rome. Now, in 1887, 
there are eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-one 
church-members, one thousand two hundred and twenty- 
two catechumens, four thousand seven hundred and 
fifty-eight Sunday-school pupils, eighty-two colporters, 
one hundred and ninety-two preachers, two hundred and 
fifty-six churches and stations, five orphan asylums, and 
nine religious newspapers, either monthly or weekly. 



236 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

On leaving America, whither he had come in 1889 
to raise money for the erection of chapels in Italy, 
Dr. J. H. Eager wrote : " Oh, for the one hundred 
thousand dollars spent in the churches of New York 
City on Easter Day for flowers ! " 

The Brazilian Mission being abandoned in 1860, 
in consequence of Missionary Bowen's health, it was 
not undertaken again until 1879, when E. H. Quil- 
lian was appointed a missionary at Santa Barbara. 
In 1881 the Brazilian Mission was reinforced by 
the appointment of W. B. Bagby and wife, and the 
next year after by Z. C. Taylor and wife, all of 
Texas. The mission has been a reasonably prosper- 
ous one. 

The most fruitful and progressive department of 
work under the Foreign Mission Board is that of 
the Mexican Mission. The way for the occupation 
of that republic by the missionaries of the Southern 
Baptist Convention was providentially opened by 
the migration of a body of Texans into Mexico. 
Establishing a chain of settlements, they organized 
churches, and from the beginning received some 
accessions from the Mexican population. The 
leaders of this movement were the brothers, West- 
rup, both of whom had been previously supported 
in the State of Coahuila by the Texas Baptist State 
Convention. One of these, John O. Westrup, hav- 
ing been barbarously murdered by the Mexicans 
and Indians, his brother assumed direction of the 
entire work. Appealing to the Foreign Board for 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 237 

help, he was, in 1882, reinforced by W. M. Flflnr- 
ney and wife. During the same year, W. D. 
Powell and wife, of Texas, and Miss Annie J. 
Mayberry were appointed to the same work, and 
stationed at Saltillo. This was the beginning of a 
grand onward march into Mexico. According to a 
comprehensive and systematic plan, the region pro- 
posed to be evangelized was divided into missionary 
districts, and the missionaries were stationed at 
certain commanding points. In this way, a line of 
missions was established from the Rio Grande to the 
Pacific Ocean. Between the years 1882—1889, the 
following missionaries, together with Senors Car- 
denas, Rodriguez, Gomez, and other natives, entered 
the field of the Mexican Mission — Misses Tupper 
and Barton, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. 
McCormick, Miss Cabaniss, Mr. and Mrs. Mosely, 
Mr. and Mrs. Watkins, Mr. and Mrs. Chastain, 
and Mrs. Duggan. The qualities of leadership 
possessed by W. D. Powell made him the acknowl- 
edged director of the Mexican Mission. Wise in 
conception, resolute of purpose, courageous in execu- 
tion, irresistible in energy, and yet gentle in dispo- 
sition and consecrated at heart — Powell combines 
all the elements of a great missionary leader in a 
region like Mexico. From the beginning, his 
career in that new field of missions has been dis- 
tinguished by the most signal success. He is able 
readily to respond to the emergencies which neces- 
sarily arise in such a region and amid such a people 



238 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

as the Mexicans. In the adobe hut of the lowly 
Mexican, upon the remote ranch, in the crowded 
mart, before the frenzied mob, in the presence of the 
highest officers of State, or in the most cultured as- 
semblage — he is equally the master of the situation. 
Fired with a consecrated earnestness, he sways the 
Mexican mind with a magical power. Writing of 
his work in 1889, he says : 

We have carried the work from the Texas border to 
the Pacific coast. Opposition is waning. I almost uni- 
versally meet a warm welcome. The government gives 
us full protection. The leading dailies in the city of 
Mexico, and throughout the republic, expose Romanism 
and defend our cause. The clergy have lost ground 
rapidly during the past two years. All of our churches 
and mission stations report progress and prosperity. 
Our force of workers is insufficient to occupy the terri- 
tory already open to us. We have eighteen American, 
and fifteen native, workers. There are eighteen organ- 
ized churches and some six hundred members. "Truly 
this is the Lord's doing and marvelous in our eyes." 
. . . All our central stations have been established at 
fine strategic points. 

The youngest of the enterprises of the Foreign 
Mission Board is the Japanese Mission. It was 
undertaken in 1889 by Missionaries McCollum and 
Brunson, and their wives. Upon the retirement of 
Mr. Brunson, the mission was reinforced by the 
appointment of Messrs. Walne and Maynard, and 
their wives. Up to this period, the work has been 
of a preparatory character, but its progress had been 
most encouraging. 



WORK UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS 239 

Among other efforts made by the Southern Bap- 
tist Convention was the organization, in 1851 , of 
the Bible Board established for colportage purposes. 
Previous to this, efforts had been made in some of 
the States, notably in Alabama and Virginia, to 
establish and maintain local Bible Boards, but they 
had failed. Nor did this larger and more preten- 
tious undertaking succeed. Publication work by a 
denomination is invariably attended by more or less 
peril. After a struggle of twelve years, the Bible 
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was dis- 
continued. The failure was largely due to the fact 
that with increased facilities of transportation, the 
American Bible Society established its auxiliaries 
and its colportage system throughout the South. 

The Southern Baptist Publication Society never 
had organic connection with the Convention, but 
was a private enterprise. It never succeeded. As 
the American Baptist Publication Society came to 
supply the demands for denominational literature 
in the South, the other gradually retired and finally 
disappeared altogether. In 1863, the Sunday- 
school Board of the Southern Baptist Convention 
was born. It likewise perished, its span of life 
being measured by the period of a single decade. 
There was a revival of this suspended interest at the 
session of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1891. 
This was the result of the agitation of the question 
of Sunday-school literature, the Convention decid- 
ing to organize its own Board for the publication of 



240 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

this matter, but distinctly adopted the conservative 
proviso " that the fullest freedom of choice be ac- 
corded to every one as to what literature he will use 
or support, and that no brother be disparaged in the 
slightest degree on account of what he may do in 
the exercise of his right as Christ's freeman." Dr. 
J. M. Frost, the author of the resolutions reviving 
the Board, became its first secretary, but retired 
after the lapse of a year, when Dr. T. P. Bell, then 
assistant secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, 
was elected secretary and treasurer of the Sunday- 
school Board. Retiring in the latter part of 1895, 
to take charge of the " Christian Index," at Atlanta, 
Georgia, Dr. Bell was succeeded by Dr. Frost, who 
was called again to the charge of the affairs of the 
Board. The headquarters of the Board are in 
Nashville, Tennessee. Under its auspices are issued 
" The Teacher," the quarterlies of different grades, 
leaflets and cards, together with " The Young 
People's Leader." The receipts of the Sunday- 
school Board for the year ending May, 1896, were 
sixty-two thousand eight hundred and forty-one dol- 
lars and twelve cents. The contributions to benevo- 
lence were made as follows : To the Foreign Board, 
two thousand one hundred and seventy-five dollars 
and ninety-three cents ; to the Home Board, two 
thousand one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and 
twenty-one cents ; to Sunday-school Mission work, 
three thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven dol- 
lars and fifty cents. 



CHAPTER X 

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 

AS has already been shown, one of the matters of 
chief concern with the denomination builders 
of the South was that of preparing the way for a 
more enlightened and better qualified ministry. 
This subject engaged the attention of the most pro- 
gressive of the Baptist ministry of the States of the 
South as early as the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. With the opening years of the present cen- 
tury, the importance of a more intelligent ministry 
was emphasized by two imperative considerations — 
the growing intelligence of the masses, and the 
steady intellectual advancement of the ministry of 
other denominations. At this early period plans 
were devised for meeting existing demands, but they 
were necessarily crude, as has been shown in a pre- 
vious chapter. From this desire to possess a more 
able ministry has grown all our denominational col- 
leges for young men. Indeed this idea was the 
germ of most of our denominational advancement, 
for it was not dissociated from that of missions in 
the minds of the founders of our general denomina- 
tional organizations in all the States. While the 
denomination was getting in readiness for this on- 

Q 241 



242 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ward movement, another event occurred in a distant 
quarter of the globe which contributed most mate- 
rially to the enhancement of its importance. Ado- 
niram Judson and Luther Rice decided in India that 
it would be necessary for one to return to America 
and organize means for the support of the other 
who might remain upon the foreign field. The 
return of Rice, in whose mind lay the associated 
ideas of intellectual advancement and denomina- 
tional expansion, was most opportune for the pro- 
motion of a cherished purpose which had long en- 
gaged the attention of the most advanced elements 
of the denomination. Every Baptist college in the 
South took root in these early plans and endeavors. 
Founded originally upon the idea of a better pre- 
pared ministry, the earliest Baptist schools were 
soon forced to respond to a general demonstration to 
provide means for the education of those looking to 
other vocations than that of the ministry. This led 
to the next stage of development, that of providing 
a theological department in connection with a purely 
literary course. Provision was made for a single 
chair in connection with such a theological course as 
was given under such circumstances. This served the 
purpose, after a fashion, for a period of years ; but 
it eventually became unsatisfactory. Baptist can- 
didates for the ministry in search of the most com- 
prehensive scholarship attainable, began to go North 
in order to avail themselves of the advanced instruc- 
tion afforded at Newton, Hamilton, and Princeton. 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 243 

Among such as sought these better facilities may be 
named J. P. Boyce, J. W. M. Williams, S. C. Clop- 
ton, H. A. Tupper, Sr., E. T. Winkler, and Basil 
Manly, Jr. The impression produced upon their 
minds of the incomparable advantages enjoyed in a- 
theological seminary above those of a theological 
annex to a literary institution, made them earnest 
advocates of a seminary for the South. They found 
ready co-operators in such men as J. B. Jeter, W. 
B. Johnson, and R. B. C. Howell. 

The attention which had been devoted to the 
general subject for so long a time, and the attempts 
which had been made to meet the prevailing defi- 
ciency in the denomination, had created a profound 
conviction of the necessity of a separate institution 
for the training of the Baptist ministry of the South. 
Consequently one of the earliest questions con- 
sidered, after the organization of the Southern Bap- 
tist Convention, was that of the possibility of found- 
ing a Southern seminary. At Augusta, Ga., in 
1845, a conference of delegates from several States 
was held in the interest of the proposed institution. 
The question came up for consideration two years 
later, in 1847, at the meeting of the Indian Mission 
Association at Nashville, Tenn. Two years later 
still, Dr. W. B. Johnson sought to secure a meet- 
ing of the delegates to the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention from South Carolina, at Aiken, prior to 
the meeting of the general body in order to gain 
co-operation in urging the claims of the Furman 



244 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Theological Institution as a nucleus of such semi- 
nary ; but the effort failed. Similar attempts were 
afterward made by other institutions, among which 
was Mercer University, Georgia, but without suc- 
cess. The question gradually became one of gen- 
eral comment, and eventually led to a discussion in 
the denominational papers between Drs. R. B. C. 
Howell and Robert Ryland. The chief objection 
urged by Dr. Ryland against the founding of such 
an institution was that it would require an endow- 
ment of one hundred thousand dollars, and that 
could not be raised. 

When the Southern Baptist Convention met at 
Charleston, in 1849, Dr. W. B. Johnson, the pre- 
siding offcer of the body, presented before an edu- 
cational meeting, in a learned and elaborate address, 
the claims of a theological seminary, He was sup- 
ported by Basil Manly, Jr. Still no practical action 
was taken. 

In 1854 the General Association of Virginia 
proposed that at the meeting of the Southern Bap- 
tist Convention for that year, at Montgomery, Ala., 
" the friends of theological education " consider 
the claims of a seminary. This is understood to 
have emanated from Dr. J. B. Jeter, who was an 
earnest advocate of a theological seminary many 
years before the consummation of the enterprise. 
At Montgomery, resolutions were offered by Dr. A. 
M. Poindexter and unanimously adopted to the effect 
" that in the opinion of this meeting it is demanded 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 245 

by the interests of the cause of truth that the Bap- 
tists of the South and Southwest unite in establishing 
a theological institution of high grade." To this 
was given the practical sanction of a meeting solely 
in the interest of the proposed seminary, to be held 
the following April in Augusta, Ga. There came 
to this last-named meeting representatives from nine 
States and the District of Columbia. A large and 
able committee, of which Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., 
was the chairman, reported "that from various 
causes they found the subject embarrassed by diffi- 
culties at every point, which it is useless here to 
discuss, as it is impossible to decide whether they 
are insuperable." But this declaration did not 
afford satisfaction to many who were intent upon 
the establishment of a seminary for theological in- 
struction. 

Another meeting still was appointed to be held 
a year later, and in order to afford ample time for 
the consideration of the matter, it was agreed to 
meet two days in advance of the Convention. To 
prepare the way for practical action, a committee, 
consisting of B. Manly, Sr., A. M. Poindexter, and 
J. B. Jeter, was directed to report to the said meet- 
ing at Louisville : 

1. What funds exist subject to the control of the Bap- 
tists for theological instruction in each of the institutions 
of the South and Southwest ; whether the trustees or 
other parties holding legal control over these funds 
can and will contribute them in any form — and if any, 



246 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

what — to the uses of a common theological institution 
to be located at any other point within or without the 
limits of their own States severally, should the aforesaid 
Convention, to assemble at Louisville in 1857, adjudge 
such different location best for the common good ; 
whether these funds, in case they are limited to a spot, 
can and will be placed within the control of such a Board 
of trustees as may be appointed by competent authority 
agreed upon for a common theological institution. 

Besides this the committee was authorized and 
requested, 

2. To use adequate means for ascertaining what efforts 
will be made in favor of any location, already occupied 
or not, by the inhabitants and friends thereof, and what 
pecuniary subscriptions or pledges will be given as a 
nucleus in case such location should be selected for the 
common institution ; the object of all these inquiries 
being to ascertain, in the fullest manner possible, 
whether such a demand is felt for a common institution 
as may be a basis and encouragement for future united 
action. 

The plan thus proposed was the product of the 
brain of James P. Boyce. Up to this time, the 
hope had been indulged that the departments for 
theological instruction connected with the Baptist 
institutions throughout the South might be com- 
bined into such an institution as was now contem- 
plated. But this idea was now given up altogether. 

When in July, 1856, the Baptist State Convention 
of South Carolina met at Greenville, Prof. James P. 
Boyce, of the theological department of Furman 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 247 

University, induced the Convention to propose to 
the contemplated Educational Convention to be held 
at Louisville, Kentucky, to establish at Greenville, 
South Carolina, a common theological institution, 
proposing to turn over the funds, to the amount of 
about thirty thousand dollars, then held by the 
Board of Trustees for theological instruction, to the 
proposed institution. To this amount it was pro- 
posed to add such a sum as would make the total 
one hundred thousand dollars, to be raised in South 
Carolina, provided an additional one hundred thou- 
sand dollars could be procured from the other States 
of the South. 

The matter was now beginning to assume practi- 
cal shape, the whole question, however, turning upon 
the possibility of collecting seventy thousand dollars 
within nine months in South Carolina. 

In May, 1857, the Educational Convention which 
was to precede the meeting of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, at Louisville, Kentucky, was held. 
There were present eighty-eight delegates from the 
States of Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Geor- 
gia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, 
Tennessee, and Kentucky. The proposal which 
came from the South Carolina Convention furnished 
the occasion for much enthusiasm, especially since 
Professor Boyce and others assured the delegates 
that the proposal as made by the South Carolina 
Baptists would be fully complied with. The inter- 
est deepened as the hope of founding a seminary 



248 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

grew brighter. At this juncture the executive skill 
of James P. Boyce for the first time became con- 
spicuous. He formed a plan for the establishment 
of the seminary at Greenville, South Carolina, the 
following year, provided the sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars be raised in that State by May 
1, 1858, ready to be placed in the hands of the 
Board of Trustees. The interest accruing from 
this sum, seven thousand dollars, was to be used for 
the support of three professors, for the purchase of 
books (not exceeding five hundred dollars annually), 
and for paying a proper agency in other States to 
raise the additional one hundred thousand dollars ; 
provided also, that recitation and lecture rooms 
could be secured in Greenville, for a number of 
years, free of rent. It was finally arranged that 
if the additional one hundred thousand dollars 
should not be raised within the period of three 
years, then the amount furnished by South Carolina 
should revert to Furman University, to be devoted 
to theological purposes, and the contributions col- 
lected elsewhere, to their respective donors. The 
wisdom of such a plan is at once apparent. Here 
were checks and balances, bold inspiration and dis- 
creet protection at every point. A special educa- 
tional meeting was provided for at Greenville, South 
Carolina, for May, 1858, to consummate the plans 
already indicated, provided the South Carolina Con- 
vention should accept the conditions. Committees 
were appointed, meanwhile, to prepare a plan of 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 249 

organization, to nominate a faculty, secure a charter 
from the legislature of South Carolina, provide for 
the canvass of the States of the South, and to issue 
an address to Southern Baptists. It is a noteworthy 
fact that the members of the committee on plan of 
organization, named by the venerable president of 
the meeting, Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., were afterward 
elected to fill chairs in the seminary, viz., James P. 
Boyce, John A. Broadus, Basil Manly, Jr., E. T. 
Winkler, and William Williams. 

It fell to the lot of Dr. Jeter to prepare the ad- 
dress to the Baptists of the South. With his 
usual vigor of style, he showed that an institution 
like a theological seminary was needed, and that 
Southern Baptists had been seeking to found such 
for a number of years. He further showed the pro- 
priety of establishing the seminary at Greenville, 
South Carolina, because of its accessibility, health- 
fulness, and cheapness of living. In presenting the 
plan of organization, he insisted that the seminary, 

being free from the shackles imposed by the old systems 
and established precedents, and having all the lights and 
experience and observation to guide us, we propose to 
found an institution suited to the genius, wants, and 
circumstances of our denomination, in which shall be 
taught, with special attention, the true principles of ex- 
pounding the Scriptures, and the art of preaching effi- 
ciently the gospel of Christ. 

Assurance was given that prevailing systems in the 
denominational colleges would not be interfered 



250 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

with, but would be encouraged by the proposed 
seminary. 

The South Carolina Baptist State Convention met 
in July following the Louisville meeting, which gave 
birth to the seminary. The proposal made to the 
South Carolina Baptists to raise seventy thousand 
dollars was accepted, and James P. Boyce was ap- 
pointed agent to raise the amount. Accompanied 
by a driver, he traveled South Carolina over in a 
two-horse buggy to raise the quota of that State. 
Though the task was a laborious one, it was cheer- 
fully undertaken. In August, Messrs. Boyce, 
Broadus, and Manly met at the home of the last- 
named, in Richmond, to arrange an abstract of doc- 
trinal principles to be signed by each professor, to 
devise the legal and practical arrangements in regard 
to trustees and professors, and to prepare an outline 
of a plan of instruction for the seminary. 

The year went past and the last of the educa- 
tional" conventions held in the interest of the estab- 
lishment of a seminary, met at Greenville, South 
Carolina, on May 1, 1858. Five days were spent 
in the discussion of plans proposed for the seminary, 
and the result was unanimity of sentiment and of 
action throughout. So harmonious was the body, 
after carefully reviewing each point, that every fea- 
ture was adopted by a unanimous vote. Instead of 
the original plan of three professors, Dr. Boyce now 
advised the appointment of four. In every detail 
of outline and execution the hand of James P. 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 251 

Boyce was actively guiding. He had raised almost 
the entire amount of seventy thousand dollars. 
Through his agency, the church building occupied 
by the Baptists at Greenville, previous to their 
entrance into their handsome edifice in another por- 
tion of the town, was procured for the use of the 
seminary. This building rendered valuable service 
for years, affording space for lecture rooms and a 
library. The wisdom of Dr. Boyce was conspicuous 
in that he pronounced against the idea of the con- 
sumption of funds in the erection of buildings until 
an ample endowment for instruction had been se- 
cured. Though the temptation was frequent to 
swerve from this purpose, Dr. Boyce held firmly to 
it, and the wisdom of such a course has been abun- 
dantly vindicated by the events of thirty-five years. 
In giving sanction to this pronounced expression of 
Dr. Boyce, Dr. Thomas Curtis, then the principal of 
Limeston (S. C.) Female Institute, said, with sonor- 
ous English tones and rolling r ? s : 

The requisites for an institution of learning are three 
b's — bricks, books, brains. Our brethren usually begin 
at the wrong end of the three b's ; they spend all their 
money for bricks, have nothing to buy books, and must 
take such brains as they can pick up, but our brethren 
ought to begin at the other end of the three b's. 

This expression was caught up and was soon spread 
all over the country. 1 

1 Dr. J. A. Broadus, " Memoirs of James P. Boyce," p. 153. 



252 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

According to the modified plan, four professors 
were elected — J. P. Boyce, J. A. Broadus, B. 
Manly, Jr., and E. T. Winkler. Two of these, 
Broadus and Winkler, declined. This together with 
other causes led to the delay of opening the semi- 
nary another year. In May, 1859, the Board of 
Trustees of the seminary met at Richmond, in con- 
nection with the Southern Baptist Convention. 
Drs. Broadus and Winkler were again elected to 
chairs in the seminary, and again Dr. Winkler de- 
clined, whereupon Dr. William Williams was 
chosen, and in the fall of 1859 the first session was 
opened. The leaders in the movement to establish 
a seminary, besides those mentioned were, J. L. 
Burrows, J. B. Taylor, G. W. Samson, R. Furman, 
J. W. M. Williams, J. O. B. Dargan, J. H. De 
Yotie, D. P. Bestor, J. M. Pendleton, S. L. Helm, 
J. L. Dagg, and Samuel Henderson. These men 
represented the influential elements of the denomi- 
nation throughout the South. From the outset the 
system of instruction in the seminary was made 
elective, and sufficiently flexible to be easily ad- 
justed to the ability of any student who might 
desire to take the course. The first session opened 
prosperously with twenty-six matriculates. Of 
these, ten came from Virginia, nine from South 
Carolina, three from North Carolina, two from 
Alabama, one from Florida, and one from Missouri. 
" This was a far larger beginning than any theolog- 
ical seminary in America of whatever denomination 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 253 

had enjoyed for its first two years." l By a combi- 
nation of the influence of the powerful factors 
already named, the additional hundred thousand 
dollars was secured from the other States of the 
South. This, together with the success which 
crowned the initial session of the seminary, secured 
its permanency. Before the close of the second 
session, the Civil War began, and from 1862 to 
1865 the work of the seminary was necessarily sus- 
pended. The professors were requested to retain 
their connection with the institution until the close 
of hostilities, to prevent the dissolution of the 
seminary. Meanwhile, their salaries were continued, 
and were paid in Confederate money, the privilege, 
however, being granted them to engage in such 
other pursuits as they deemed advisable, while they 
should hold official, though nominal, connection 
with the institution. In consequence of this priv- 
ilege, the faculty was dispersed in different direc- 
tions, Dr. Boyce becoming chaplain of a Confederate 
regiment, and later, a member of the South Carolina 
legislature. Drs. Manly and Williams found partial 
employment as country pastors in the regions adja- 
cent to Greenville, while Dr. Broadus divided his 
time between country pastorates, missionary work in 
General Lee's army, and the corresponding secre- 
taryship of the Sunday-school Board, which was at 
that time located at Greenville. 

1 J)t. John A. Broadus, in " First Thirty Years of the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary," p. 11. 



254 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

During the summer following the capitulation of 
the Confederate armies, the members of the semi- 
nary faculty met at Greenville to consider the ad- 
visability of attempting to resume work in the fall 
of 1865. The endowment had been almost totally 
destroyed in consequence of the war, five thousand 
dollars alone remaining, and that was invested in 
Georgia Railroad bonds which could be sold for 
nearly par. In order to open the seminary in the 
fall, Dr. Boyce generously contributed one thousand 
dollars to the available resources of the seminary, 
although his own private affairs were critically de- 
ranged by the war, and the business outlook of the 
country was quite gloomy. Fortunately no incubus 
of debt was upon the seminary — a calamity which 
had been averted by the sagacity of Dr. Boyce. 

AVith 1865 began, on the part of the seminary, a 
protracted struggle for life. Only seven students 
were enrolled during the first session after the close 
of the war. But the noble men of the faculty stood 
at their posts. One of them said, " The seminary 
may die, but suppose it be understood that we'll die 
first.'' Fully aware of the arduous and self-sacri- 
ficing labors which awaited them, the members of 
the faculty cheerfully resumed the direction of the 
affairs of the seminary. There was no abatement 
of interest nor the slightest indifference to instruc- 
tion because of the slim attendance. Professors 
met their classes as promptly as they would have 
done had the lecture rooms been crowded. Dr. 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 255 

Broadus gave a pretty full course of instruction in 
homiletics to one student during the first session 
after the war, and that one was blind. The num- 
ber of students slowly increased, year by year, but 
the depressed condition of the country suggested 
only failure continuallyr Money was exceedingly 
scarce, and the spirit of progress seemed to have 
departed from the South. In the midst of these 
conditions, these brave and gifted men in the tem- 
porary quarters at Greenville were barely able some- 
times to keep the wolf from the door. At one time, 
the payment of the salaries fell an entire year 
behind, and the worst of it was there was no assur- 
ance that they would ever be paid. Some of the 
professors would ride on horseback considerable dis- 
tances across the country to serve rural churches, 
and not infrequently return laden with food for their 
families. The lesson of rigid economy learned dur- 
ing the years of the war was never more valuable 
than at this time. Nor were the few students who 
strayed through the halls, and occupied the seats of 
the lecture rooms, any more fortunate, for they were 
frequently reduced to very great straits. In this 
extremity, friends were not wanting. Occasionally 
the trying tension was relieved by the contribution 
of some generous soul. To the frequent appeals 
made by Dr. Boyce, favorable responses would now 
and then come, but oftener they would not. How- 
ever, there were never lacking some who gave of 
their hard earnings to the seminary. 



256 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHEEX STATES 

About 1870 a few generous Baptists at the Xorth 
began to afford some aid. This was at first given 
to defray the personal expenses of some of the 
students, but afterward was contributed to the cur- 
rent expenses of the institution. As soon as the 
condition of the country would justify it, Dr. Boyce 
began the organization, at the meetings of the 
Southern Baptist Convention, of a general subscrip- 
tion for the payment of a given amount each year, 
for five years, to meet current expenses. This 
course was pursued at two sessions of the conven- 
tion, and served the purpose admirably of assisting 
to tide the seminary over difficult straits. But it 
was evident that this could not long continue. One 
of two things soon became necessary — to give up 
the seminary altogether, with no probability of re- 
viving it for a whole generation, or to endow it. 
If endowed, the seminary must be removed. The 
idea of endowment suggested that foundation work 
was as necessary as when the seminary was first 
instituted. It was clear that in order to endow- 
ment, the seminary would have to be removed to 
some State that would be willing to contribute at 
least one-half of the endowment fund. In the 
deplorable condition in which South Carolina then 
was, it would be impossible to realize the amount 
necessary for the proposed object. At that time 
Furman University was struggling to get upon its 
feet, and it stood in urgent need of every dollar 
which the denomination in South Carolina could 



SOUTHEEN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINAEY 257 

command. While the question of removal was be- 
ing discussed, offers were made by several cities in 
different States to secure for themselves the location 
of the seminary. It was finally decided to remove 
it to Louisville, Ky. South Carolina was being 
abandoned only in response to a call of stern ne- 
cessity. All the members of the faculty were about 
to sunder their connection with their former sur- 
roundings, not without great grief. This was espe- 
cially true of Dr. Boyce, who was devoted to his 
native State, and the more so now because of her 
prostrate condition. Dr. Boyce preceded the re- 
moval of the seminary to Louisville, where he had 
been engaged for several years in working up the 
endowment. 

In 1887 the seminary opened its doors in its new 
home in the West. There was an increase in the 
attendance from the beginning. This has steadily 
continued from year to year. By degrees most of 
the great body of Kentucky Baptists came to appre- 
ciate the location of the seminary among them, and 
personal pledges were given to the amount of three 
hundred thousand dollars, of the half-million sup- 
posed to be necessary to maintain the institution. 

Many of the pledges made by the denomination 
in Kentucky and elsewhere failing to be collected, 
and the expenses having been materially increased 
by reason of removal to a large city, a deficiency of 
funds ensued. Really it seemed, for several years 
after reaching Louisville, that the seminary might 



258 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

after all collapse. Just at this juncture. Gov. Joseph 
E. Brown, of Georgia, contributed to it fifty thousand 
dollars. This was the occasion of much enthusiasm 
among the friends of the institution. Mr. George 
W. Norton, one of the leading business men of 
Louisville, was the next to act, and in such a way as 
to secure gifts, which when added to those already 
in hand would yield the increase necessary to sustain 
the school. Mr. Norton and his brother, "W. F. 
Norton, had already been generous contributors to 
the seminary, but his plan now was to give in such 
a way as to secure two hundred thousand dollars of 
invested funds. In order to command the confi- 
dence of the business public, and at the same time 
to secure any gifts to the seminary against any con- 
tingency, Mr. Norton proposed that such changes 
be made in the charter as to require that the princi- 
pal of all contributions for endowment made subse- 
quently to February 1, 1880, be held forever sacred 
and inviolate, only the income to be expended, and 
if any portion of the principal be used for expenses, 
then the whole should revert to the original donors. 
In order to give the greatest possible practical force 
to this measure, it was further proposed that a finan- 
cial Board of the seminary, composed of five busi- 
ness men in Louisville, should be elected every year 
to invest the principal, hold the securities, and pay 
over the income to the treasurer of the seminary. 
The purpose was to protect the principal against all 
invasions, however urgent the need or grave the 






SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 259 

crisis. The legislature of Kentucky granted the 
amendment to the charter. Having accomplished 
thus much, the Norton brothers now proposed to 
give each a generous sum toward securing the two 
hundred thousand dollars. 

From this time the seminary took on new life. 
Without delay a vigorous canvass was begun. Dr. 
Broad us went North and procured about forty thou- 
sand dollars ; and within two years the two hundred 
thousand dollars was collected and invested and the 
seminary was saved. Up to this time the school 
had been quartered in rented buildings in Louisville, 
for the same policy was here adopted that had saved 
the seminary from wreck at Greenville, which was 
that building should not be undertaken until a per- 
manent endowment was secured. For a period the 
students were quartered in a hotel of moderate 
dimensions, and lectures were delivered on the third 
and fourth floors of the Library Hall, which space 
had been rented for these purposes. The hotel and 
the two floors of the Library Hall were rented for 
the seminary for a term of years. 

A substantial endowment being secured, Dr. 
Boyce, in 1884, began to devise plans for building. 
The Board of Trustees had appointed a committee 
of fifteen, including the faculty and a number of 
business men in Louisville, to select a location. A 
division of opinion existed respecting the location of 
the seminary — some contending for a suburban loca- 
tion where the property would gradually enhance in 



260 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

value ; others, for a central location which would 
give the seminary an independent and respectable 
position from the beginning, and bring it frequently 
under the observation of its friends and supporters. 
Besides, it would give to the students the advantage 
of all that was best in the social life of the city, and 
place them within easy reach of the churches, Sun- 
day-schools, and lecture halls of Louisville. A 
central location would enable the students to reach 
more readily the surrounding regions, where they 
might desire to preach on Sunday, as it would 
equally serve to enable them to resume more 
promptly their work on Monday. The question 
was the occasion of no little concern until President 
Boyce found property in the city which could be 
purchased at reasonable rates. This he quietly 
gained the consent of the committee to purchase. 
A judicious investment was made; the difficulty was 
at once solved; the seminary was located. So em- 
phatically did the location commend itself to the 
business public that a number of gentlemen volun- 
tarily contributed to the payment for the property. 

The choice of location for the seminary was only 
the beginning of a new struggle on the part of Pres- 
ident Boyce, who had now to raise fifty thousand 
dollars to pay for the purchased lots. Where should 
he look for the amount? Louisville, it would seem, 
had been drained of its generosity toward the sem- 
inary; the churches had grown weary of appeals, 
and the current expenses had still to be met. Mat- 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 261 

ters were again brought to a standstill. The heart 
even of the great Boyce was sorely tried under such 
pressure. He needed twenty thousand dollars with 
which to make a payment for the property, and no 
means were in sight. Appealing to Mr. W. F. 
Norton to start the subscription with twenty-five 
hundred dollars Dr. Boyce wrote : 

Getting this sum is really going to be fearful work ; 
yet it is necessary to get it, if possible. If I can do this 
then the hope of buildings in the future may be reason- 
ably entertained. Without it, I do not believe I shall 
ever see the day when these buildings can be completed. 
I do wish before I die to see the seminary fully equipped 
and at work. For this I have spent my whole life thus 
far, and am willing to spend the remainder, if I can at- 
tain the end. But my heart often sinks within me at 
the difficulties to be overcome. My faith in the enter- 
prise fails. I begin to think I must leave it incomplete 
for some other man to finish. Oh, that I could get my 
brethren to see its possibilities for good, with an ample 
endowment ! I know it could do ten times its present 
work. 

He was overwhelmed with the burden at this junc- 
ture because the time had arrived for making titles 
to the lots, and the payments due were indispensable. 
From here and there the money came, sometimes 
from unconjectured sources. A visit from Dr. Ed- 
ward Judson to Louisville about this time resulted 
in arousing his interest in behalf of the seminary. 
Returning to New York, he became the indirect 
means of awakening the interest of Mr. John D. 



262 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Rockefeller, which found substantial expression 
somewhat later. Mr. J. A. Bostwick's sympathy 
was also quickened in consequence of a visit to 
Louisville. This was followed by a visit of Dr. 
Broadus to New York, where generous gifts — largely 
conditioned upon local liberality in Louisville — were 
obtained. Notwithstanding his broken health, Dr. 
Boyce made gigantic efforts to meet the conditions 
named. Unchecked in his zeal even by harsh 
weather, which he had to encounter with shattered 
health, he toiled as never before. Slight dribbles 
gathered here and there gave but little hope of sub- 
sequent relief. Finally the amount was raised and 
sixty thousand dollars was realized in New York. 
Senator Brown, of Georgia, again came to the res- 
cue, sending his check for five thousand dollars 
more for the contemplated building, and New York 
Hall was an assured success. 

In 1885 two bequests were made to the seminary 
which greatly increased its resources. Mr. D. A. 
Chenault, of Madison County, Kentucky, bequeathed 
to it fifteen thousand dollars, the interest of which 
was to be used in aid of needy students in attend- 
ance. W. F. Norton, of Louisville, contributed ten 
thousand dollars for the same purpose. On Decem- 
ber 28, 1888, Dr. Boyce died at Pau, France, whither 
he had gone with the hope of procuring relief from 
the gout, from which he was a great sufferer. His 
loss was greatly lamented throughout the States of 
the South. His had been a career of remarkable 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 263 

activity, usefulness, and honor. Endowed with the 
highest qualities of intellect; with courage and a 
lofty spirit, a mastery of details which was phe- 
nomenal, a quick apprehension and an unerring 
judgment, indomitable firmness which never quailed 
before the most menacing exigency, promptness, 
punctuality, and perseverance which never failed ; 
an energy rarely equaled, a capacity for labor which 
was herculean, and a poise of character which made 
him a prince among his fellows — James P. Boyce 
was pre-eminent among the Baptist leaders of the 
South. 

Those elements in which he may not have been 
the peer of others, were compensated for manifoldly 
by the possession of other great qualities of which 
the owners of special gifts alone never dreamed. 
His qualities of mind and character were not only 
many, they were great. Jurist, financier, philoso- 
pher, theologian — he was all these to a pre-eminent 
degree. He was petty in nothing; he was great 
in all. 

Dr. John A. Broadus succeeded Dr. Boyce as 
president of the seminary. Under his administra- 
tion the work went successfully on. Side by side 
he had labored with Dr. Boyce from the inception 
of the great denominational enterprise. His last 
years were cheered by the decided progress which 
marked the career of the seminary. He had seen it 
grow from struggling infancy to the proportions of 
a giant; for in 1894 there were in attendance two 



264 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

hundred and seventy students taught by eleven in- 
structors. 

At that time the value of the grounds and build- 
ings was estimated at two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars, the endowment had grown to four 
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and the 
library was valued at fifty thousand dollars, there 
being twenty thousand volumes upon the shelves — 
the total valuation being seven hundred and seventy- 
five thousand dollars. 

On March 16, 1895, Dr. Broadus died. His suc- 
cessor to the presidential chair of the seminary, Dr. 
Whitsitt, in the historical address delivered at 
Washington, D. C, in May, 1895, on the occasion 
of the fiftieth anniversary of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, said of Dr. Broadus : 

This year of our jubilee, with all its light and gladness, 
has been sadly darkened by his departure. On the sev- 
enteenth of March devout men carried him to his burial, 
and made great lamentation over him. The foremost 
leader of our history, great in the might of his greatness, 
has passed away from us, but his fame and usefulness 
shall go and grow throughout the years and ages. When 
you, who sit here, shall be aged and feeble men and 
women, little children will gather about your knees with 
reverence and delight to look upon one who has seen 
and heard and spoken with John A. Broadus. 

In May, 1875, Prof. W. H. Whitsitt, d. d., ll. d., 
was elected by the Board of Trustees the president 
of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 265 

success of the first session of his administration was 
phenomenal, the attendance being three hundred 
and eighteen, representing twenty-eight States, the 
District of Columbia, and the Indian Territory, to- 
gether with one student each from China, England, 
Nova Scotia, and Persia, and four from Canada. 



CHAPTER XI 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 

INFORMATION respecting the earliest Baptist 
Sun day-schools in the South is scant. That 
they existed in the earliest years of the present cen- 
tury is easily ascertained, but to locate them in 
every instance is not so easy. That so valuable an 
auxiliary should have been suggested to a people so 
alert respecting local evangelization as the Baptists 
of the South have ever been, is altogether natural. 

In the opening years of the century great rivalry 
existed between the Baptists and Methodists of the 
South. Their local missionaries and pastors vied 
with each other in seeking to be the first upon the 
ground in every new settlement, and they were 
watchful of each other respecting any means which 
might be employed for denominational advance- 
ment. Any legitimate means which were laid under 
tribute by one, were equally employed by the other 
if the cause was thereby promoted. It is a matter 
of record that a Sunday-school was organized in 
1786, at the suggestion of Bishop Asbury in Han- 
over County, Virginia. This is the first school of 
that character of which we have an account in the 
South. Again, in 1790 a resolution favoring Sun- 

266 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 267 

day-schools was adopted by the Methodist Confer- 
ence, in Charleston, South Carolina. Baptists have 
not been so careful to preserve their records as have 
other people, only as these records are embodied in 
the local proceedings of churches, and are therefore 
inaccessible to the general chronicler ; hence we are 
left for data to the occasional glimpses that are 
afforded through indirect means rather than through 
documentary evidence. The first third of the present 
century was a period preparatory to the Sunday- 
school interest which began to assume commanding 
proportions about 1840. The development of the 
interest was greatly hindered during the latter half of 
the time named, by the perpetual struggle between 
the progressive and the unprogressive elements of 
the denomination. And yet it must not be inferred 
that the young were left uninstructed in sacred 
things during this long period. While there were 
but few schools that approximated in efficiency the 
Sunday-school of to-day, there were organizations in 
which sacred instruction was given. In the cen- 
ters of population, like Savannah and Charleston, 
where presided such denominational representatives 
as Holcombe and Furman, the young were regularly 
trained in catechetical instruction. During his 
Charleston pastorate, Dr. Richard Furman would, 
every quarter, assemble the young people of his 
charge for the purpose of having them recite from 
Reach's Baptist Catechism. Standing over the 
closed baptistery (which was then called the font) 



268 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the honored pastor, in clerical robes and bands, 
having the boys ranged face to face with the girls, 
would alternately ply them with questions. 1 

This exercise was statedly and solemnly conducted 
in the presence of the assembled audience, and the 
recitation served to excite much interest, especially 
on the part of those most concerned in the reciters. 
The prominence thus given to the teaching of the 
youth of the church preserved a wide-awake interest 
in sacred instruction among the Baptist homes of 
-; Charleston. The lessons thus taught were never 
forgotten. It was a period of thorough indoctrina- 
tion. Under such conditions men and women grew 
up robust Baptists. Though superior in many re- 
spects, the Sunday-school literature of to-day is 
not equal to that of the earlier periods with respect 
to denominational culture. At that time but little 
disposition was shown to simplify either the terms 
or thought of the catechism in accommodation to the 
capabilities of the youth. The cardinal doctrines 
were presented alike to the mind of the child and 
that of the matured theologian. It was not so much 
a matter of comprehension — that could be left to 
maturer years— it was a cramming process. Ques- 
tions relative to the fundamental doctrines would be 
as glibly answered by boys and girls in the old First 
Church of Charleston, as by the thoughtful preacher 
in his study. 

1 Dr. 0. F. Gregory, "History of First Baptist Church, Charles- 
ton, S. C," subject, Sunday-schools. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WOKK 269 

While these examinations in Keach were taking 
place quarterly, the Presbyterians, Methodists, and 
Baptists would unite in a weekly union Sunday- 
school. By degrees, however, each denomination 
withdrew and established its own school. 

The first regularly organized Baptist Sunday- 
school in the South was in the Second Church of 
Baltimore. This organization took place in 1804, 
at the suggestion of Elder Healy, the pastor, who 
had emigrated from England in 1795, and was 
doubtless largely influenced by the Sunday-school 
activity then prevailing in Great Britain. 

The next Baptist Sunday-school of which we 
have any record was that of the First Church of 
Charleston. It seems that prior to 1816, several 
denominations were united in Sunday-school in- 
struction, as has already been shown. It was in 
1816 that a distinctively Baptist Sunday-school was 
organized at Charleston. In 1819 still another was 
organized by Dr. Adiel Sherwood at Trail Creek 
Church, near Athens, Georgia. Dr. Sherwood had 
just removed from New England, where he no doubt 
had enjoyed the advantages which he was now seek- 
ing to impart to others. 

After 1820 Sunday-schools became more numer- 
ous in different portions of the South, especially in 
the upper tier of the Southern States. Oftentimes 
they would continue until the winter months, when 
they would suspend until the reopening of spring. 
Again, they would be operated successfully for a 



270 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

period of months and then gradually become extinct. 
In the populous centers schools generally began as 
union organizations. The literature was such as 
could be gotten from any source, and usually em- 
braced a few old catechisms. 

The expansion of the denominations, however, 
compelled separate organizations to be made for the 
different Sunday-schools. Beginning first in the 
cities, schools gradually came to prevail in the town 
and village churches, and finally in the country. A 
Sunday-school in a rural church was rarely heard of 
before 1825. This marks the date of the beginning 
of the opposition to Sunday-schools on the part of 
the anti-missionary Baptists of the South, which 
opposition waxed in bitterness until 1838. 

In some instances, ministers were silenced for ad- 
vocating such institutions, and in others, members 
were excluded from the churches for suffering their 
children to attend them. The temper of the oppo- 
nents of Sunday-schools at that time may be judged 
from an extract from the Minutes of an anti- 
missionary church in Alabama, the record bearing 
date, 1825 : 

Breastwork Church petitioned in her letter that this 
Association (the Alabama) take into consideration the 
propriety or impropriety, and make consideration 
thereon, of a declaration made by that church declining 
an uncommunion fellowship with the Baptist State Con- 
ventions, theological schools, Sunday-schools, Bible so- 
cieties, tract societies, and all churches that hold mem- 
bers of such societies in fellowship with them. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 271 

The organization of the American Sunday-school 
Union in 1824 gave an impulse to the Sunday- 
schools in the older States of the South. Agents 
were appointed to canvass the most populous sec- 
tions, not only to organize schools, but to solicit 
funds for the furtherance of the objects fostered by 
the Union, as well as to nourish the schools organ- 
ized under its auspices. In the rural districts of 
the South, these agents were not, at first, cordially 
received. Sunday-schools were regarded as an in- 
novation, and they were adopted slowly and cau- 
tiously. The managers of the Sunday-school Union 
displayed great wisdom by appointing some of the 
denominational leaders in each of the older States 
of the South to represent its interests. For a long 
period it was difficult to maintain Sunday-schools 
with any degree of permanency outside of the 
churches of the cities. 

As early as 1830 the North Carolina Baptists 
were advocating Sunday-schools through reports ^ 
submitted to the general bodies. The Mississippi 
Baptist State Convention, as early as 1838, made 
this ringing deliverance : 

Though the institution of Sabbath-schools is, as it 
were, in its infancy, its advantages have been tested by 
numberless experiments. It numbers now among its 
friends, the statesman, the philanthropist, and the pious 
of every name. 

And that the great Head of the church regards it 
with special favor is evident from the abundant success 



272 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

with which he has crowned it. Your committee would 
recommend it to the warmest sympathies and most 
hearty co-operation of this body as promising great good 
to the rising generation and the general advancement of 
the cause of Christ. We are aware of the discourage- 
ments under which its friends must labor in this State. 
Few comparatively are experienced in its operations ; it 
is difficult to obtain books, and, in many parts, the 
population is so sparse as seemingly to forbid its success- 
ful introduction. But in every good cause obstacles 
yield to resolute perseverance. If we look about our 
State, we shall doubtless find that not one-sixth of the 
children attend preaching regularly on the Sabbath ; so 
that it is to them the most idle day of the seven. It 
need not be said here that idleness is the parent of vice. 
But could the children be brought into a Sabbath-school, 
they would be restrained from profaning the Sabbath 
and be employed in a most valuable process of mental 
and moral culture. 

As an aid to the friends of Sabbath-schools, we would 
suggest to the Convention the expediency of establish- 
ing a Sabbath-school repository within the bounds of 
this State, believing that it would give birth to num- 
bers of Sabbath-schools within the present year, be the 
means of securing the greater uniformity in books, and 
such books too as are generally approved by our de- 
nomination. 

This admirable report, which was really a fore- 
cast of the system as it was afterward developed, 
closed with resolutions of high approval of the 
system of Sunday-school instruction, and urged its 
immediate attention upon the Baptist pastors 
throughout the State. 

This report was submitted on the occasion of the 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 273 

second annual meeting of the Mississippi Baptist 
State Convention. A few years later we have the 
first expression concerning the Sunday-school, from 
the Alabama Baptist State Convention. In 1844 a 
report was submitted for the first time, which 
report clearly indicates that schools have been for 
some time existing in the State, but the writer is 
led to regret " the absence of such statistical infor- 
mation as would contribute to the usefulness and 
interest of the report." In a closing resolution, the 
report provides that the "Convention, impressed 
with the value of the system of Sunday-schools, ear- * 
nestly recommended that it claim the immediate at- 
tention of pastors, and that they be urged to consti- 
tute a school in each church as early as practicable." 
When, in 1831, Dr. William Vaughn was ap- 
pointed the agent of the American Sunday-school , 
Union in Kentucky, the cause began to excite pub- 
lic interest, though the schools were slow in form- 
ing. The agitations of that period, arising from the 
distractions occasioned by Alexander Campbell on 
the one hand and by the anti-missionary Baptists 
on the other, had made the Baptists of Kentucky re- 
luctant to embrace any new measure. They looked 
askant upon the introduction of any innovation or 
departure, however great its promise of good results. 
This extreme caution delayed denominational en- 
dorsement of the Sunday-school for twenty years. 
It was not until 1854 that we find the General As- 
sociation of Kentucky bestowing the slightest atten- 



274 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS OT SOUTHERN STATES 

tion upon the institution. Even then the expression 
was a feeble and dubious one. A report upon the 
subject says : "From the best information we can 
obtain, we are of the opinion that Sunday-schools 
are not appreciated among our churches ; that a 
very small proportion of the churches — probably 
not one-fourth — have Sunday-schools, and many of 
them in a very sickly condition, scarcely maintain- 
ing an existence." No positive action was taken, 
no aggressive interest manifested. In 1856, how- 
ever, we find the General Association of Kentucky 
adopting the following : 

Resolved, That we recommend to our churches the im- 
portance of organizing Sunday-schools whenever it is 
practicable. 

Resolved, That pastors of churches use their influence 
by presenting to their respective congregations the sub- 
ject of Sabbath-schools and aid in organizing a healthy 
and efficient system. 

This interest being at last aroused, an investiga- 
tion of the literature which was being distributed 
by the agents of the American Sunday-school Union 
was had. The undenominational character of the 
literature at once aroused the opposition of the Ken- 
tucky Baptists, who were naturally sensitive at this 
particular juncture to the slightest evasion of a 
positive presentation of the principles of the Bible 
as they were held by Baptists. This investigation 
led to a vehement denunciation of the diluted char- 
acter of the literature of the Sundav-school Union. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 275 

Now that interest was aroused, it was determined 
to constitute a new organization to be known as the 
Southern Sunday-school Union, which was established 
at Memphis, Tennessee, in November, 1858. While 
the depository was located at Memphis, the govern- 
ing Board was appointed at Nashville. The resolu- 
tions which follow emanated from the General Asso- 
ciation of Kentucky, and clearly show the sentiments 
which controlled the Baptists of the State at that 
time. 

Resolved, That while we recognize the excellencies of 
the Sunday-school Union libraries, in the main we feel 
the defect of an entire silence on many points of divine 
truth, essential to the duty of Christians and to the 
union of God's people. 

Resolved, That we approve the principle of supplying 
all our libraries with a literature entirely scriptural and 
expressive on all points of duty, both of doctrine and 
polity. 

Resolved, That we recommend the patronage of the 
Southern Baptist Sunday-school Union. 

This new turn in the tide of affairs served to 
quicken for a while denominational interest in the 
subject. L. B. Fish, becoming the general agent of 
the Memphis organization in 1860, succeeded in 
arousing more enthusiasm in the work than had pre- 
viously existed. This brings fully before us the 
varying phases of the work within the territory 
under consideration, until the outbreak of the Civil 
War. Up to this time no uniformity characterized 



276 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the work in the different portions of the South 
where it existed. Wherever a school was estab- 
lished it adopted its own methods and its own course 
of study. Independent of uniformity of system or 
co-operative action, Sunday-schools gradually multi- 
plied each year until the establishment of a system 
under the auspices of the Southern Sunday-school 
Board. There were occasional general expressions 
of public interest in the work, such as was had at 
Richmond, Virginia, in 1853, when a Sunday-school 
convention of the Southern States met in that city. 
The most that was accomplished by this meeting 
was that it gave increased vigor to the institution. 
The subject did not claim the attention of the 
Southern Baptist Convention, however, until 1859. 
Repeated, but incidental, allusions had been made to 
Sunday-schools in the proceedings of the Convention 
from its inception ; but they had not become suffi- 
ciently prominent to claim official attention until the 
session of the year just named. This is perhaps 
due to two chief causes — the Convention up to this 
period was engrossed in the formation of its plans 
for missionary work at home and in foreign fields, 
and the cause of Sunday-schools had not assumed 
sufficient prominence throughout the States consti- 
tuting the Convention to challenge attention. In 
his annual report for 1859, as secretary of the 
Home Mission Board, R. Holman shows that that 
Board had already begun the work of the organ- 
ization of Sunday-schools. He reported one hun- 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 277 

dred and fourteen schools as organized up to that 
date, with six hundred and one teachers and five 
thousand five hundred and seventy pupils. The 
same report alludes to the work previously done in 
the South and claims that as a result of such work 
seven hundred and forty-three pupils had been con- 
verted and brought into the churches. From this 
time forth the Sunday-school interest claimed more 
the attention of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

From the earliest years of the Convention Basil 
Manly, Jr., had been greatly interested in the Sun- 
day-school cause. He had made several ineffectual 
efforts to bring the matter to the attention of the 
general body. At last, in 1863, he procured the 
appointment of a committee of seven, composed of 
Basil Manly, Jr., Sylvanus Landrum, I. T. Tich- 
enor, T. E. Skinner, J. L. Burrows, C. J. Elford, 
E. T. Winkler, and W. T. Brantley, to report upon 
the expediency of a more vigorous effort in behalf 
of Sunday-schools. The result was an able and 
elaborate report which emphasized the importance 
of the Sunday-school as an auxiliary of church life. 
The report raised three questions : (1) Whether it is 
expedient for the Convention to attempt anything 
in the direction of promoting interest in Sunday- 
schools ; (2) whether the present is the proper time ; 
and (3) in what way the effort should be made. 
The conclusion was finally reached that a concentra- 
tion and consolidation of the interest in all the 
States of the South would induce economy, uniform- 



278 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

ity, and an expansion of salutary results. The out- 
come of this action was the creation of a Board in 
the interest of the work, which Board was located 
at Greenville, South Carolina, with Basil Manly, 
Jr., as president. At the same session of the Con- 
vention at which the Sunday-school Board was 
formed, the Bible Board was abolished. An ar- 
rangement was subsequently entered into for merg- 
ing the Southern Baptist Publication Society, which 
sustained no connection with the Convention, into 
the Sunday-school Board. Hence the new organi- 
zation came to be called the Sunday-school and Pub- 
lication Board. 

An address was at once issued to the Baptists of 
the South denning the object of the new Board, ex- 
plaining its plans, and appealing for " voluntary 
agents and general help." Though beginning at a 
most inauspicious time, the Board began its work 
with confidence, and from the outset aroused great 
public respect, and soon laid under tribute many 
valuable agencies. Funds were raised for the sup- 
port of the work of the Board ; such pastors as 
could do so devoted much time to its interest ; and 
the denominational press of the South rendered it 
most efficient aid. The Board was fortunate in 
being able to obtain a portion of the time of Dr. 
John A. Broadus as its corresponding secretary. 
Still the Board was greatly embarrassed because it 
had no printing facilities, and no means with which 
to obtain such. The Southern ports were now closed 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WOEK 279 

by a hostile fleet, and intercourse with the outside 
world being cut off, it was next to impossible to 
promote the interests of the Board. No literature 
was to be had except the remnants of stocks left on 
the shelves of the book dealers, together with an 
occasional useful book found here and there in a pri- 
vate house. But with the scanty material on hand, 
and much of that crude, the Board resolved upon 
the publication of a number of books. 

Ten thousand Sunday-school primers were soon 
exhausted, and a second edition was issued ; an 
edition of fourteen thousand " Little Sunday-school 
Hymn Books " was soon gone, and seventy thousand 
more were called for. The " Confederate Sunday- 
school Hymn Book" was issued in an edition of 
three thousand, and afterward in an edition of ten 
thousand, and they were rapidly taken. The best 
talent in the South was invoked in behalf of the 
struggling enterprise and some timely productions 
were issued. Among these were the " Infant Class 
Question Book," by L. H. Shuck ; " Little Lessons 
for Little People" and the " Child's Question Book 
on the Four Gospels," by B. Manly, Jr., together 
with " A Brief Catechism of Bible Doctrine," by 
James P. Boyce. 

Just after the constitution of the Board, applica- 
tion was made to the brethren at Baltimore to ar- 
range for the purchase of twenty-five thousand 
Testaments for its work in the South. In response 
to this, the American Bible Society at New York 



280 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

made a donation of that number. These were sent 
under a flag of truce " for the use of the Sunday- 
schools of the Southern Baptist Convention." No 
such contribution had been thought of, but so soon 
as the American Bible Society learned of the desti- 
tution in the South, it promptly made liberal re- 
sponse. The society was informed that " the Board 
did not think proper to accept them as a donation, 
but informed the donors, with an acknowledgment 
of their Christian courtesy, that they would receive 
and distribute the Testaments, and would pay for 
them as soon as commercial intercourse should be- 
come practicable." l Even after the Board had come 
into the possession of these books, it found it diffi- 
cult to distribute them. Mail facilities were in- 
ferior and shipment, as freight, was perilous. But 
most excellent results were reached by the Board. 
By means of a competent Sunday-school missionary 
in each State, much interest was aroused throughout 
the South. The secular press everywhere lent its 
potent aid, and every means possible was made to 
do the Board service. Among the active mission- 
aries of the Board were : "W. E. Hatcher, of Vir- 
ginia ; J. A. Chambliss, of South Carolina ; W. T. 
Brantley, of Georgia; and A. W. Chambliss, of 
Alabama. 

The exigency of the times contributed largely to 
the success of the cause, as parents found in the 

1 "Report of the Sunday-school and Publication Board," for 
I860. 






SUNDAY-SCHOOL WOKK 281 

Sunday-school at least a partial means of education 
for their children, now that the secular schools were 
closed. 

During this stormy period Baptists were alone in 
the prosecution of Sunday-school work in the South, 
and the schools organized by the agents of the Board 
were eagerly patronized by the people irrespective 
of name or denomination. 

With the capitulation of the Southern armies 
came a cessation of the work of the Board. But in 
January, 1866, it began, in a limited way, again 
issuing the periodical known as "Kind Words." 
This was a signal for a great demand upon the 
Board for Sunday-school literature. Appealing to 
the churches, the Board was able to get but meagre 
response, because of the prostrate condition of the 
country. Unwilling to lose its hold upon the people, 
it promptly bought up what books it could from the 
Sunday-school Union, the American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society, the American Tract Society, as well 
as from individual publishers. The brave efforts of 
the Board under such adverse conditions won for 
it sympathy, and efforts were made to restore it to 
its position of influence and power for good. When 
the Southern Baptist Convention met at Russellville, 
Kentucky, in May, 1866, while the South was in 
ruins, the following passage occurred in the report 
of the Sunday-school and Publication Board : 
" Sunday-schools for the colored people have, for 
many years past, been conducted in different sec- 



282 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

tions of the South, particularly in the cities and 
towns. Their recent emancipation furnishes in- 
creased motives for establishing such schools, and 
there can be no longer any disposition to restrict 
them to oral instruction." 1 In the same connection 
the reasons were shown that it was timely to teach 
the Negroes the way of salvation more perfectly be- 
cause of their increased responsibility. It was in- 
sisted too, that the people of the South were under 
obligation, as far as possible, to do this work for the 
emancipated black man. It was finally urged that 
the obligation was upon the Convention to organize 
schools for the Negroes. 

The Sunday-school Board now began a wrestle 
for life. It had suffered in the common calamities 
of the war, and nothing was now left it to fall back 
upon but the affections of the people. An appeal 
for help was issued, but not a dollar came in re- 
sponse. A self-assumed indebtedness of two thou- 
sand dollars hung over the Board by reason of its 
refusal, in 1863, to accept the twenty-five thousand 
Testaments which Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore, had 
been instrumental in procuring from the American 
Bible Society. Dr. Broadus having retired from the 
service of the Board, Rev. C. C. Bitting was elected 
to succeed him. With characteristic zeal he began 
laying his plans for an extensive work. The in- 
debtedness of the Board had first to be wiped out. 

1 Some of the States of the South forbade by legal statute the 
education of slaves. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 283 

Investigation showed that the Sunday-school Board 
possessed, at the time of the receipt of the Testaments, 
imperfect knowledge, and influenced by the highest 
dictates of Christian honor had assumed the obliga- 
tion of making payment for the books. But the 
American Bible Society, on the other hand, insisted 
that it was a donation and begged that it be so con- 
sidered. This led to a formal acknowledgment of 
the books as a donation, to which another was added 
by the American Bible Society in 1867. 

Steps were now taken to enter anew upon the 
work of publication and missionary effort. In 1868 
the Board was transferred from Greenville, South 
Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee. By the consoli- 
dation of the Board with the Southern Baptist 
Sunday-school Union, Dr. S. H. Ford became the 
president of the new enterprise, and Dr. T. C. 
Teasdale was made secretary. The embarrassments 
of the Board by reason of its crippled condition 
were seriously enhanced by the occupation of the 
South at this time by the American Sunday-school 
Union, the American Bible Society, and the Amer- 
ican Baptist Publication Society. Pressed on every 
hand for aid, Dr. Teasdale appealed to Dr. Griffith, 
of the American Baptist Publication Society, for re- 
lief. Dr. Griffith at once responded : " If you re- 
ceive more applications than your Board can supply, 
encourage the applicants to appeal to us. We will 
cheerfully consider each case and make grants as 
long as we have anything to grant with." 



284 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Internal friction, complications, and inability to 
cope with agencies possessed of fertile resources, led 
to the extinction of the Sunday-school Board in 
1873, by its being merged into the Domestic Mis- 
sion Board. This led to the organization of Sunday- 
school Boards in some of the States of the South. 
Meanwhile the Domestic Board continued the publi- 
cation of a cheap series of Sunday-school papers, of 
which " Kind Words " was the chief periodical, all 
of which were edited by Rev. Samuel Boykin. 

With the returning tide of prosperity to the South 
came the creation of new enterprises of evangelistic 
endeavor. One of these was the State Boards 
throughout the States of the South, which Boards 
were based upon the Sunday-school work which had 
originally been done. These new agencies, without 
exception, were dependent upon the American Bap- 
tist Publication Society for the supplies necessary 
for their work. Without the timely aid of the 
Publication Society, Sunday-school and colportage 
work in the South would have been most seriously 
retarded if not effectually blocked. It was destined 
for almost a score of years to sustain the struggling 
Sunday-school interests of the South, both of the 
whites and of the blacks. 



CHAPTER XII 

COLLATERAL AGENCIES 

THE forces which have contributed to the de- 
nominational growth of the Baptists of the 
South have been supplemented by yet other forces. 
This last class, though subsidiary in character, have 
been none the less effective. They have come into 
operation, as occasion has demanded, and while the 
creature of denominational growth, they in turn 
have been productive of yet other means which 
have contributed to the same end. One of the 
most effective of these agencies in the South is the 
Baptist press. The Baptists are thought to be the 
pioneers of the religious press in the States of the 
South. The first undertaking of journalism as an 
engine of power in religious enterprises was by 
Henry Holcombe, of Georgia, who established, in 
1801, " The Analytical Repository." This was the 
first venture of Baptist journalism in the United 
States, the second being "The Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Magazine," which appeared in 1803. 
Though it was a most effective agent while it lasted, 
" The Analytical Repository " was not long-lived. 
To the more advanced and progressive elements of 
the denomination in Georgia, it was most stimu- 

285 



286 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

lative, but it was too far in advance of the condi- 
tions of the times to be effective with the masses of 
the denomination. It was doomed by its prema- 
turity. 

a The Latter Day Luminary" was one of the 
projects of Luther Rice for arousing an interest in 
foreign missions. The "Luminary" made its ap- 
pearance in Washington, D. C, in 1816, first in the 
form of a quarterly, but afterward as a monthly. 
It ran a useful but brief course, but failed for want 
of support. This was followed by "The Colum- 
bian Star," which was ultimately resolved into 
"The Christian Index," and removed first to Phila- 
delphia then to Georgia. In its new sphere it be- 
came a powerful factor in the hands of Jesse Mer- 
cer, whose position and ability made him the cham- 
pion of progress in that early period. At a time 
when plainness of speech and uncompromising 
principle were needed to turn back the tides of 
ignorance and prejudice, Jesse Mercer, with "The 
Christian Index," most efficiently rendered the 
needed service. More than any other, he aroused 
and maintained among the Baptists of Georgia inter- 
est in missions and education. In 1840 he pre- 
sented the "Index" to the Georgia Baptist State 
Convention, and through the subsequent eventful 
periods it has served as a great engine of progress, 
not in Georgia alone, but in the States adjacent as 
well. 

For nearly three-quarters of a century "The Re- 



COLLATERAL AGENCIES 287 

ligious Herald" has rendered inestimable service 
to the denomination toward the East. Started in 
1828 by William Sands, a practical printer, it has 
laid under tribute the ablest pens of the denomina- 
tion from that period to this. By its ability im- 
pelling the denomination toward the attainment of 
the highest development, it has been equally serv- 
iceable in restraining it by its conservatism. As 
an advocate of progress, " The Religious Herald " 
has inspired much zeal in the promotion of interest 
especially in behalf of education and missions. 
After the close of hostilities its tone of conservatism 
did much to allay sectional animosity and to restore 
a sentiment of co-fraternity between the North and 
South. 

" The Biblical Recorder " was brought into being 
in response to a demand for such an organ in the 
progressive period of 1834. Thomas Meredith, the 
acknowledged leader of the North Carolina Baptists 
of that time, recognized the necessity of a State 
organ if he should expect to succeed in the accom- 
plishment of the ends at which he aimed ; hence 
" The Biblical Recorder. " It was a connecting link 
between " The Christian Index " on the one hand 
and "The Religions Herald" on the other during 
a period of years when they were the only denomi- 
national exponents along the Atlantic board of the 
South. These organs were simply indispensable 
during the formative period just succeeding the 
constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention. 



288 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

To the strong and uncompromising denomina- 
tional views of " The Biblical Recorder " are the 
Baptists of North Carolina largely due for their 
uniform stability and progress. 

Among the most useful of the denominational 
organs in the western portion of the States of the 
South has been " The Western Recorder." It had 
its germ in " The Baptist Banner/ 7 which was 
begun in 1825, and was therefore the pioneer of 
Baptists journals west of the Alleghanies. The 
paper did not become "The Western Recorder" 
until 1851, being known by different names before 
that time, as it was shifted from point to point. 
During the troublous periods through which the de- 
nomination in that quarter of the South had been 
compelled to pass, " The Western Recorder " has 
been an invaluable ally to the maintenance of Bap- 
tist principles and a pronounced promoter of de- 
nominational progress. 

Later appeared in the southwest " The Tennes- 
see Baptist," the chief representative of the extreme 
views of the Baptists of the South. It was the or- 
gan of "Old Landmarkism," and under the edi- 
torial direction of Dr. J. R. Graves, swayed a mar- 
velous influence in the Mississippi Basin and in 
States bordering upon those watered by the great 
river, both east and west. Graves was a born 
polemicist, and his challenging tone, coupled with 
his ready utterance and forcible diction, won easily 
for him the popular eye and ear. He came upon 



COLLATERAL AGENCIES 289 

the scene at a time when the conditions most favored 
his polemical spirit. The incoherent character of 
the bulk of the population reached by his paper, 
its ringing notes of controversy so congenial to a 
bustling and formative state of society, its fervid 
declarations against all forms of doctrinal error, at 
a time when both the South and the West were be- 
ing swept by a storm of controversy, the location 
of the " Tennessee Baptist " just where many of 
these opposing influences met — these served to give 
alike to the editor and to his paper a prominence 
which they would not have enjoyed in calmer 
times. Indeed, when calmness began to prevail, 
the lustre of the editor as well as of his journal be- 
gan to grow dim. But extreme as were the views 
advocated by J. R. Graves, there can be no doubt 
that he rendered some service in giving a proper 
setting to Baptist doctrine in a region where, if the 
sentiments had been less pronounced, they would not 
have been so effective. 

" The Southern Baptist," which was published so 
long at Tuskegee, Alabama, was a valuable ally to 
its denominational contemporaries. It had its origin 
at Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1838, where it was 
founded by Rev. John D. Williams. Removed to 
Marion, Alabama, where it was known as the 
"Alabama Baptist," and then as the "Alabama 
Baptist Advocate" ; thence to Montgomery, where 
it became the " Southwestern Baptist " ; and again 
removed to Tuskegee, Alabama, the journal did 



290 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

much good in counteracting the extreme views of 
the " Tennessee Baptist," while it was an able ad- 
vocate of the enterprises of the denomination. The 
value of its contribution to Baptist interests in this 
newer region of the South and Southwest is beyond 
estimate ; but it was not a whit less valuable in its 
stalwart defense of Baptist principles in a region 
where the Methodists were most progressive and 
aggressive. The " Southwestern Baptist" was 
merged into " The Christian Index/' as a result of 
the Civil War. One of the signs of the growth of 
denominational spirit in the lower basin of the Mis- 
sissippi was the establishment of the " Southwestern 
Baptist Chronicle," by Eev. W. C. Duncan, in 1847. 
The paper was ably conducted for three years, but 
was discontinued in consequence of the failing health 
of Dr. Duncan. 

Feeling the need of a local organ in that quarter 
of the South, Mr. L. A. Duncan, brother to the 
former editor, undertook the establishment of the 
"New Orleans Baptist Chronicle" in 1852. This 
journal attained a considerable circulation in the 
States of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, but 
the paper was discontinued in 1852. Again in 1855 
an effort was made to give the Baptists of the Peli- 
can State an organ of intercommunication, hence 
Rev. Hanson Lee began the publication, at Mount 
Lebanon, of the " Louisiana Baptist." This enter- 
prise proved to be more successful than the others, 
for the paper attained the rank of one of the ablest 



COLLATERAL AGENCIES 291 

of the Southern Baptist journals. The paper was 
continued throughout the dark days of the Civil 
War, even after the death of its gifted editor, in 
1863, and was conducted subsequently by Rev. A. F. 
Worrell, W. F. Wells, Dr. Courtney, and W. E. Pax- 
ton, but in 1869 it was merged into the "Memphis 
Baptist," the powerful organ of Dr. J. R. Graves. 

Mr. J. L. Furman began the publication of " The 
Southern Messenger," a semi-monthly periodical in 
1876, but the enterprise was not a success for want 
of patronage and was soon discontinued. 

The organs already named were the chief journals 
of the Baptists in the States of the South until the 
revival of interest following the cessation of hostili- 
ties. The concentration of resources and compact- 
ness of organization which became necessary after 
the social revolution wrought in the South, required 
a multiplication of educational agencies. Nothing 
could serve so effectually to meet prevailing de- 
mands as Baptist newspapers. Hence with the 
revival of suspended interests in the South came a 
reassertion of denominational spirit, which was 
voiced in each State through journals instituted for 
the purpose. One after another of the States began 
the publication of official organs, until there is one 
or more in each of those of the South. 

Besides those already mentioned may be named 
" The Baptist Courier,' 7 of South Carolina ; " The 
Baptist and Reflector/' of Tennessee; "The Ken- 
tucky Baptist," of Kentucky ; " The Alabama Bap- 



292 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

tist/' of Alabama ; " The Baptist Record/' of Mis- 
sissippi ; " The Baptist Chronicle," of Louisiana ; 
and " The Florida Baptist Witness," of Florida. 

All these have been valuable auxiliaries in de- 
nominational development in the Southern States 
during the last twenty-five years. In closest con- 
nection with the State Boards, these agencies have 
acted and reacted most helpfully upon each other, 
and for the general promotion of the cause of God. 

Besides these, there have been periodicals of a 
more distinct character which have been co-opera- 
tive with the State journals. Chief among such is, 
" The Foreign Mission Journal," issued by the For- 
eign Board from Richmond, Virginia. Since its 
inception it has commanded a wide circle of readers 
throughout the South. It occupies a sphere pe- 
culiarly its own. By reason of its vital touch with 
the missionaries in foreign parts, it has been able to 
present to the churches just that information which 
has aroused sympathy and interest in our foreign 
mission work. 

For a period of years the Home Mission Board 
issued a neat organ known as " Our Home Field," 
which sustained the same relation to that Board 
that is sustained by " The Foreign Journal " to the 
Board of which it is the organ. An attempt was 
made in 1895 to unite these interests, but it proved 
impracticable and the Boards were left in 1896 to 
devise their own means of communication with the 
churches. 



COLLATEKAL AGENCIES 293 

In the absence of a review in the South, the 
"Seminary Magazine/' of Louisville, Kentucky, 
somewhat supplies that deficiency. It is issued by 
the students of the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, and by its elevated tone has done much 
to stimulate progress in theological thought in the 
States of the South. 

Besides the press, there have been other potent 
agencies which have beeu closely allied to the de- 
nominational papers in the promotion of Baptist 
interests. The most conspicuous among these is 
the American Baptist Publication Society. In its 
origin, the Publicatiou Society was Southern. With 
the expansion of the denomination in the South 
came, in due time, the suggestion of the imperative 
necessity of a general publishing agency, by means 
of which there might be presented, as well as per- 
petuated, the principles of Baptists. These princi- 
ples were extending ; thousands were every year 
embracing them, but they were presented almost 
exclusively by the preacher's lips. 

It was not until 1824 that the matter of creating 
a publishing agency took shape. Four years before 
that time the subject had been considered in Phila- 
delphia, but no definite action was taken. In 1823, 
Noah Davis, of Maryland, wrote a letter to his 
classmate, J. D. Knowles, of Washington, D. C, 
urging the formation of a tract society, to be oper- 
ated under the auspices of the Baptists. The idea 
was suggested to Mr. Davis by seeing a tract fall to 



294 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

the ground from the hat of another. The letter 
just referred to suggested that a call be issued for a 
meeting to consider the feasibility of establishing a 
publishing interest, and the call was made through 
" The Columbian Star." In response thereto, 
twenty- four persons met at the home of Mr. George 
Wood, in "Washington, D. C., February 25, 1824. 
Among those present were William Staughton and 
Baron Stow, the latter being at that time a student 
in Columbian College. 

A society was formed, George Wood became its 
agent, and it began operations at once. The neces- 
sity of such an agency was manifest from the readi- 
ness with which it was responded to throughout the 
States. Two years after its establishment, it was 
removed to Philadelphia, where it has since re- 
mained. 

This is not the place to furnish a history of the 
American Baptist Publication Society ; but it has 
thriven commensurately with the growth of the 
denomination and the prosperity of the country. 

During the chaotic days subsequent to the close 
of the Civil War, when the Baptist denomination 
was seeking to rally its agencies, and when a new 
beginning was to be made in the reorganization of 
its work, the Publication Society came to its rescue. 
The work of the Sunday-school Board of the 
Southern Baptist Convention during the war showed 
where means would accomplish the greatest good. 
The inability of the Southern Board to meet these 



COLLATERAL AGENCIES 295 

demands left the South in greatest need of supplies 
for this important department of Christian labor. 
Sentiment in favor of Sunday-schools had been 
rapidly growing since 1863. A most remarkable 
development of interest had been shown in this 
sphere during the ten years following the period just 
named. But just when the interest was most 
intense, the source of supplies was cut off by the 
necessary extinction of the Sunday-school Board. 
At that juncture, the American Baptist Publication 
Society turned its attention to the cultivation of the 
Sunday-schools in the South. It was a friend in 
need. With unstinted hand it gratuitously supplied 
hundreds of schools, both of the whites and of the 
blacks. Hundreds of Sunday-school libraries also 
were furnished in the same spirit. For more than 
fifteen years this work was prosecuted by the So- 
ciety alone in the States of the South. Coupled 
with this was a colportage and missionary system 
conducted under the auspices of the Publication So- 
ciety. 

So great was the demand for Sunday-school and 
colportage supplies in the South, that it was deter- 
mined in 1887 to establish a Branch House at At- 
lanta, Georgia. This was earnestly advocated by 
such men as Drs. Henry McDonald and H. H. 
Tucker. The enterprise was begun somewhat as a 
business venture, but when the receipts from sales for 
the first fiscal year amounted to more than thirty- 
two thousand dollars the experimental stage was 



296 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

passed, and Atlanta became the center of a great 
Sunday-school influence. A few years later, in re- 
sponse to a growing demand for the literature which 
the Publication Society was dispensing, another 
Branch House was located at Dallas, Texas, which, 
together with the one at St. Louis, constitutes the 
three in the States of the South. A fair estimate of 
the Society by Southern Baptists is expressed in an 
extract taken from an address delivered by Dr. J. B. 
Hawthorne at the opening of the new building of 
" The Baptist Witness/' at Ocala, Florida, in 1894 : 

The corrupting influence of the world's bad books is 
opposed by the purifying and the ennobling influence of 
millions of volumes in which there is not a taint of im- 
purity. In this connection it gives me great pleasure to 
say that among the institutions which are providing the 
world with a wholesome literature, there is not one that 
deserves higher esteem and honor than the American 
Baptist Publication Society. It is the one Baptist institu- 
tion of which every Baptist in the wide world can afford 
to be proud. Into every nook and corner of this great 
country its books and periodicals have gone to enlighten 
and elevate and save the people. With its magnificent 
facilities, directed by many of the brainiest and best men 
of the nation, and with the moral and material support of 
nearly four millions of Baptists, it is destined to accom- 
plish wonderful transformations in this and in other 
countries. Working harmoniously with kindred insti- 
tutions, it will do much to emancipate this land from the 
dominion of an unclean and debasing literature. 

Another benevolent agency in the South is the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society. Its 



COLLATERAL AGENCIES 297 

work is chiefly confined to the colored people, and 
it is among them that work is most needed. It 
has created a spirit of self-respect among Southern 
Negroes by means of the establishment of schools. 
The Society has rendered the help which could not 
have been otherwise extended to the colored 
people of the South, and in the most critical 
period of their history. During the year 1893 
alone it expended twelve thousand five hundred and 
sixty-two dollars in mission work among the colored 
Baptists of the South. It maintains for that people 
in the Southern States twenty-nine institutions of 
learning, of which fourteen are high schools and 
fifteen secondary. An important feature of the 
work of which the South has been a fortunate recipi- 
ent from the Society is that of assisting, by gift and 
loan, in the erection of houses of worship. 

The American Baptist Education Society was or- 
ganized in 1888, possibly for the purpose of ad- 
ministering the educational gifts of Mr. John D. 
Rockefeller for the promotion of Baptist schools. 
Substantial and timely aid has been rendered to 
struggling institutions in the South in the payment 
of debts incurred and by the increase of their endow- 
ments. The Society serves as an eliciting agency 
by conditioning its donations, in almost every case, 
upon the raising of several times the amount do- 
nated from other and interested sources. 

The Southern Baptist Young People's Union has 
just begun as an organization. It promises to ac- 



298 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

complish much excellent work among the Baptist 
churches of the South. Through its Christian Cul- 
ture Courses it is affording to the young of the de- 
nomination a more exalted and extensive view of 
the sacred literature, denominational history, and 
the history of missions. 

The Southern Educational Conference is an or- 
ganization which holds its sessions annually in con- 
nection with the meetings of the Southern Baptist 
Convention. It was organized at Birmingham, 
Alabama, in 1891. At its annual sessions papers 
of an educational character are read and discussed 
by the representatives who come as Baptist educa- 
tors from the schools of the South. 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE general organization of Baptist women in 
the South into co-operative societies for mis- 
sionary work, is of comparatively recent date. 
Long prior to this movement the women in different 
portions of the South were engaged, in numerous 
ways, in contributing to the cause of missions. Un- 
pretentious local societies would, from time to time, 
be formed, and now and then a voluntary contribu- 
tion would be made by some devout woman. Even 
as early as 1823, women's missionary societies 
existed in different portions of the then young State 
of Alabama. When the Baptist Convention of that 
State was organized, seven of the twenty delegates l 
were there as representatives of these societies. 
These little societies were entirely independent of 
any general organization. Among the contributions 
made that year by the hands of devout women was, 
on the part of one, a watch and chain, and, on the 
part of another, two pairs of socks "knit with her 
own hands.' ' There was a Woman's Missionary 
Society in Richmond, Virginia, as early as 1823, 
doubtless there were others scattered here and there 
through the South. 

299 



300 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Even after new interest in woman's work had been 
kindled in the South, there was, in many quarters, a 
marked demonstration against it. The fears gener- 
ally expressed were those of undue organization in 
the churches, which would exhaust itself in that 
alone, and that separation of the churches into dif- 
ferent elements would tend to disintegration. And 
the further fear was not disguised that there was 
danger of according too great prominence to women 
in the churches. Even after the work of organiza- 
tion had begun in the South, in some quarters they 
were knocking in vain at the doors of Associations 
and State Conventions for permission and encourage- 
ment to join in the general work of the denomina- 
tion. So persistent did these appeals become in 
some States, that efforts were made at conciliation 
by the adoption of certain complimentary resolutions 
as void of meaning as they were intended to be. 

Under the inspiration of the new movement 
which had been transmitted from the Woman's Mis- 
sionary Society of Newton Center, Massachusetts, 
of which Mrs. Gardner Colby was the president 
and Mrs. Alvah Hovey the corresponding secretary, 
Mrs. Ann J. Graves of Baltimore, organized, in 
that city, in 1867, a woman's missionary prayer 
meeting for the support of native Bible women be- 
longing to the Canton Baptist Mission. Mrs. 
Graves was the mother of Dr. R. H. Graves, the 
missionary to China. This meeting, certainly un- 
pretentious enough, was steadily maintained until 



301 

1869, when Miss Brittan, of Calcutta, India, visited 
America, and was invited by Mrs. Graves to be 
present at one of the prayer meetings. So profound 
was the impression produced by Miss Brittan that 
great interest was aroused in behalf of women in 
heathen lands. This led to the formation of the 
Baltimore Auxiliary of the Woman's Union Mis- 
sionary Society, which included a number of earnest 
women of the various Christian churches of that 
city. This society was constituted in 1870 with 
Mrs. J. W. M. Williams, as president, and Mrs. 
Ann J. Graves, as secretary. Within a few years, 
the contributions of this local society grew from six 
hundred dollars to one thousand dollars annually. 

In October, 1871, the Woman's Mission to Woman 
was organized, with Mrs. Franklin Wilson as presi- 
dent, Mrs. F. Crane as treasurer, Miss Jane W. 
Norris as recording secretary, and Mrs. Ann J. 
Graves as corresponding secretary. This work con- 
tinued to grow in interest, which was not a little 
heightened by the marriage of Miss Norris and Dr. 
R. H. Graves, the missionary to China. 

At the same date, October 23, 1871, Rev. John 
Stout, pastor of the Baptist Church at Newberry, 
South Carolina, organized a Woman's Missionary 
Society. Mr. Stout was the first in the South to 
undertake and to encourage such organization. 
Through successive years he was engaged in the 
organization of these societies in his native State. 

Miss Edmonia Moon, of Virginia, having been 



302 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

accepted by the Foreign Mission Board, as a mis- 
sionary to China, in 1872, the Baptist women of 
Richmond, Virginia, at once organized the Woman's 
Missionary Society of that city, for the support of 
Miss Moon. The contributions, the first year, 
amounted to one thousand two hundred dollars. 

In 1872, in his first annual report to the Southern 
Baptist Convention at Raleigh, North Carolina, as 
corresponding secretary of the Foreign Mission 
Board, Dr. Tupper alluded to the importance of 
organizing Bible women at our missionary stations 
and suggested that the women of our churches 
might be aroused to the importance of " redeeming 
their sister women from the degrading and destroy- 
ing thraldom of paganism." 

A report upon woman's work read at the session 
of the Convention in 1872, by Dr. J. W. M. Wil- 
liams, appealed to the delegates present to take im- 
mediate steps to organize women's missionary soci- 
eties. Rev. John Stout was present at this session 
of the Convention and was greatly interested in the 
woman's movement, as he had shown by his efficient 
work in the organization of societies in South Caro- 
lina. The work which was done in this direction 
for several years afterward was confined almost ex- 
clusively to South Carolina and to a single pastor — 
John Stout, the originator of the movement in the 
South. The matter claimed the attention of the 
Southern Baptist Convention again in 1875, when 
the work of organizing woman's missionary societies 



303 

was formally commended. In 1876 the South 
Carolina Central Committee of Missions was consti- 
tuted at the suggestion of Mr. Stout. This was 
the first central committee organized in the South. 
It received that year the sanction of the South 
Carolina Baptist State Convention. 

In 1878 the matter was again before the Southern 
Convention, which met that year at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee. At this time the first positive step was 
taken by the Convention respecting this important 
work. In a report submitted by Dr. J. W. M. 
Williams, of which committee Mr. Stout was a mem- 
ber and who no doubt influenced the suggestion, it 
was urged that central committees be organized in 
each State to co-operate with the two general 
Boards, as auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention. The following year, 1879, the chairman 
of the committee on woman's work was Dr. T. T. 
Eaton. The committee emphasized the action of 
the one of the preceding year, repeating the impor- 
tance of women's organizations. 

Meanwhile the work was assuming greater pro- 
portions. Under the lead of Rev. John Stout, 
South Carolina was greatly in advance of the other 
States of the South, in some of which the Conven- 
tions declined to give encouragement to the move- 
ment. The segregated condition of the societies 
which had been formed throughout the South, sug- 
gested the propriety of a general co-operative or- 
ganization, but it was not effected for several years. 



304 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

In 1881, Secretary Tupper, in his annual report, 
called the attention of the Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion to the movement going on in the South and 
stated that so far as could be ascertained, three hun- 
dred and fifty of these societies had been organized, 
and they had contributed to foreign missions six 
thousand two hundred and forty-four dollars and 
thirty cents. 

Still the Convention was tardy about doing more 
than to give verbal endorsement. Resistance to the 
movement continued in a number of the Southern 
States, and difficulties were overcome only by the 
quiet organization of societies in almost all these 
States. In 1883 the question was again before the 
Southern Baptist Convention, at Waco, Texas. 
This time it aroused more interest than had pre- 
viously prevailed, which interest found expression 
very soon afterward in the organization of central 
committees throughout the States of the South. 
Organization gave additional strength to the grow- 
ing cause. The work grew apace until the occur- 
rence of a little episode in the Southern Baptist 
Convention, in 1885, at Augusta, Georgia. At that 
session a portion of the Arkansas delegation to the 
Convention was composed of women. There was 
nothing in the constitution of the Convention to 
prevent their recognition as delegates. The ripple 
of agitation produced by the occurrence, was lulled 
by the reference of the matter to a committee of one 
from each State, of which Dr. J. William Jones, of 



305 

Virginia, was the chairman. After due deliberation 
the committee reported the following : 

Your committee to whom was referred the whole ques- 
tion of the eligibility of women to seats as delegates in 
this body, have considered the matter and have unani- 
mously agreed to the following : As some doubt has 
arisen as to the proper construction of the Constitution, 
we recommend the following amendment : In Article 
III., of the constitution, strike out the word "members " 
in the first line, and insert instead thereof the word 
"brethren." 

The report was adopted, and the matter was set 
at rest. Many Baptist women from the South were 
present at this session of the Convention not with 
the view of being recognized as delegates but to 
confer together about the work throughout the 
South. Holding a meeting, in which the ladies 
from Arkansas heartily joined, all these noble 
women present at that time sent a communication 
to the Convention, disclaiming any purpose to form 
a separate and independent organization, and an- 
nouncing as their purpose to work directly through 
the churches and through all the appointed chan- 
nels of the Convention. 

Whatever misapprehensions may have previously 
existed were removed by this action on the part 
of the women at Augusta, and a fresh impulse was 
given to the movement in every portion of the 
South. Prior to 1890 the general organization for 
the South was known as the Executive Committee 



306 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

of Woman's Mission Societies. Later, it assumed 
the more dignified designation of Woman's Mission- 
ary Union. 

After the meeting of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention at Augusta, Georgia, in 1885, woman's 
work received appropriate recognition. It became 
a prevailing custom for the representatives of the 
women's societies from each State to assemble at 
the same time and place of meeting of the Southern 
Baptist Convention. While auxiliary to the Con- 
vention, the women hold their meetings separately, 
and in another portion of the city. Partly through 
modesty, and partly because they wish to transact 
their business in a manner satisfactory to themselves, 
they forbid the attendance of members of the other 
sex. If one enters a meeting of the Union it is 
because he is invited to do so. The headquarters 
of the Woman's Missionary Union is in the city of 
Baltimore. Mrs. A. M. Gwathmey is the president 
of the body, and Miss Annie W. Armstrong is the 
corresponding secretary. Besides the collected 
funds which are contributed directly to the treas- 
uries of the two general Boards, much valuable serv- 
ice is rendered by the union in the distribution of 
religious and missionary literature, and in furnish- 
ing stores of supplies to the missionaries of the 
Home Board laboring upon the Western frontier. 
The organizations in some of the States assume the 
support of missionaries upon the foreign field, while 
others attend to the education of their children. 



307 

The year 1888 marks the date of the distinct 
organization of the woman's movement in the South. 
All the efforts which preceded that date were pre- 
paratory to a general organization. Within a few 
of the States the work had been thoroughly and 
efficiently organized long before that time, but the 
movement did not become general until the date 
named. As the organization increases in numerical 
strength, it gains in popularity and multiplies in its 
agencies for work. In the larger cities much mis- 
sionary work is done, and much benevolence is 
expended among the poorer classes. 

The following recommendations of the Executive 
Committee adopted at Washington, D. C, in 1895, 
clearly set forth the spirit and purpose of the 
Woman's Missionary Union. 

1. Believing that through the influence and power of 
the Holy Spirit great things can be accomplished for 
the Lord, we suggest that the first week in January, 
1895 — the World's Week of Prayer — be observed by the 
woman's mission societies with special reference to the 
guidance of the Spirit in the extension of interest in 
missions ; and to make our prayers more specific, that 
the Mission (Prayer) Card be more generally used. 

3. That the recommendations of the Foreign and 
Home Boards asking for total collections from woman's 
mission societies of thirty thousand dollars and twenty- 
five thousand dollars respectively, be heartily com- 
mended ; and we further suggest, to give definiteness, 
that these sums be proportioned among the States. 

4. Believing that in the young people is our future 



308 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

strength, we earnestly recommend that the work of 
organizing mission societies and bands among young 
women, girls, and boys be vigorously prosecuted. That 
central committees appoint one of their number, or elect 
one to be of their number, to take charge of this work 
in each State. 

5. Encouraged by the enthusiasm with which the 
week of self-denial was entered upon, and the results 
following, it is again recommended that a week of self- 
denial be observed by the societies. 

6. That mothers' meetings and industrial schools be 
organized among foreign populations and colored women 
and children ; and that Sunday-schools be instituted for 
the Chinese wherever found, whether there be one or 
more. 

Thus, from a crude and tangled form, doubtful of 
its issue in 1888, the woman's movement in the 
South has become one of the most efficient arms of 
sacred work. Foremost in the establishment of the 
success of the union has been Mrs. Ann J. Graves, 
Miss M. E. Mcintosh (Mrs. Bell), Miss Annie W. 
Armstrong, Mrs. A. M. Hillman, Miss Fannie E. 
Heck, Mrs. M. D. Early, Mrs. Geo. B. Eager, Mrs. 
John Stout, and Mrs. J. P. Eagle. Many others 
there are whose names are known to the Master. 
The commendable aim of the union is understood 
to be " to make of every Baptist woman an intelli- 
gent and active friend of missions, and to induce 
in such a regular, systematic habit of remembering 
this work both in their prayers and gifts." 1 

x The development of woman's work in the South, so far as it 
pertains to the contributions of funds, is shown in the following 



309 

table. Totals for home and foreign missions since organiza- 
tion: 

1888 $21,039.16 

1889 30,773.69 

1890 31,237.76 

1891 38,990.34 

1892 44,282.80 

1893 (Centennial Year) 62,336.75 

1894 45,128.59 

1895 48,449.25 

Grand Total, $322,238.34 



CHAPTEE XIV 

COLORED BAPTISTS A2s T D THEIR WORK 

ONE of the most interesting features of denomi- 
national history in the South is that of the col- 
ored Baptists. The beginning of their spiritual 
history antedates their political emancipation more 
than a century. True, the enslavement of the 
black man was a monstrous evil alike to slave and 
owner, and yet there were incidental advantages 
springing even from slavery that were incalculable 
to the Negro. American slavery is dead, never to 
be revived, and there could be no satisfaction de- 
rived from a reproduction of arguments in its de- 
fense, even if the disposition should exist; yet 
there were advantages incidentally derived from the 
institution, without which the colored people must 
have remained barbarians. While many thousands 
of them were subjected to the most exacting labor, 
and oftentimes to cruel treatment, there were yet 
many other thousands whose labor was light, who 
were exempt from cruel servitude, and who were 
favored by being brought into daily contact with 
the highest culture of the South. In the capacities 
of maids, housekeepers, seamstresses, and nurses, of 
hostlers, coachmen, and attendants, they served by 
310 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 311 

the ten thousand in the most cultured of Southern 
homes. Docile, gentle, and impressible, these peo- 
ple became the unconscious possessors of innumera- 
ble advantages which rendered them excellent serv- 
ice when the period of emancipation came. 

Associated with the youth of the whites, thou- 
sands not only secured the rudiments of an educa- 
tion, but many became musicians, speakers, reciters, 
and writers, and many were enabled to absorb the 
conventionalities of social life. Easily receptive 
and deeply emotional, many bright slave boys caught 
the spirit of oratory from the numerous rehearsals 
of the white youth, and when the restraints of 
slavery were lifted, they flashed into sudden promi- 
nence as preachers and as public speakers. To 
many of them the transition was an easy one from 
the incidental benefits of slavery to a response 
to the demands made upon them when they were 
thrown upon their own resources. Back of much 
of the phenomenal advancement of the black man 
lay the numerous small advantages enjoyed during 
his enslavement, which advantages, in the aggre- 
gate, were considerable ; so that the Negro was 
not an untutored savage when liberation came. 
Many there were who had been imbruted by cruel 
masters ; many who suffered from lack of the neces- 
saries of life ; many who were degraded by the 
most vicious impositions ; still there was a large 
favored class whose gain was immense, and without 
the enjoyment of which the race would have been 



312 HISTOKY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

deplorably helpless when the boon of emancipation 
was received. 

In recording these facts, there is no desire to rob 
the colored man of any merit which justly belongs 
to him. That he deserves much credit is true ; that 
he deserves the meed of praise for his prompt and 
appropriate use of means placed within his reach 
the fair-minded will not deny ; and that he has been 
able to accomplish so much in the midst of adverse 
conditions, is a matter of no small wonder and an 
occasion of much commendation. 

In order to a proper estimate of the history of 
the evangelization of the colored people of the 
South, and in order fully to understand the nature 
of their work, we shall have to gather up the scat- 
tered threads of history and knit them together. 

Just before the beginning of the Revolutionary 
War a colored man, and a slave, named George 
Liele, was converted in Burke County, Georgia, 
under the preaching of Matthew Moore, a pioneer 
Baptist preacher. Having been baptized, Liele was 
permitted to preach, and his efforts were attended 
with the happiest results. Liberated by his mas- 
ter, Henry Sharpe, about the time of the outbreak 
of the Revolution, Liele went to Savannah and be- 
gan preaching with great acceptance at Bramton 
and Yamacraw, near the city, as well as upon the 
outlying plantations. ^Continuing his work in this 
region to the close of the Revolution, Liele accom- 
panied the British to Jamaica as the body-servant 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 313 

of an English officer. Deeply moved by the degra- 
dation of the unchristian masses about him on the 
island, Liele began preaching to them. Wherever 
he could gather a crowd, whether upon the com- 
mons or the race-course, on the streets or in his 
own hired house, he earnestly presented the claims 
of the gospel. His efforts were rewarded by his 
ability to gather a church of four members, who, 
like himself, were refugees from America. 

He now threw himself with consuming zeal into 
gospel work, and while he supported himself, was 
enabled within seven years to baptize five hundred 
converts. In 1793 he erected the first dissenting 
chapel ever built in Jamaica. Meanwhile he was 
the victim of much sore persecution, having been 
imprisoned and loaded with irons more than once, 
and once tried for his life. From Jamaica, George 
Liele was instrumental, through correspondence with 
Drs. Ryland and Bippon of England, in intro- 
ducing the gospel into Africa. 

Before leaving America for Jamaica, Liele bap- 
tized in the neighborhood of Savannah, Andrew 
Bryan, a slave who, nine months after his conver- 
sion, began preaching at Yamacraw. 

Many converts were the result of his efforts. Ob- 
taining permission to preach in a barn at Bramton, 
the good work went on until he was interfered with 
by some disreputable whites, who attacked the crowd 
under the pretense of suppressing sedition. This 
disturbance was summarily checked by the slave- 



314 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

owners of the community, and the meetings were 
encouraged to proceed. During all this time Bryan 
was not licensed to preach. Thomas Burton, an 
aged white minister, having heard of this work of 
grace among the slaves, visited them and baptized 
eighteen. Later, in 1788, Abraham Marshall, of 
Kiokee Church, accompanied by Jesse Peter, a 
young colored preacher of Augusta, visited the 
Bramton community and baptized forty-five more, 
organized a church, and ordained Bryan to the full 
work of the ministry. This became the parent of 
two other strong colored churches in Savannah. 
Bryan died at the age of ninety and was buried 
with marked respect by the white Christians of the 
city in which he had spent his life as a slave 
preacher. Slave though he was, Bryan left an 
estate of three thousand dollars when he died. 

In recognition of the valuable services of this 
slave preacher, the Savannah Association (white) on 
the occasion of his death, in 1812, adopted the fol- 
lowing resolutions : 

The Association is sensibly affected by the death of 
the Kev. Andrew Bryan, a man of color, and pastor of 
the First Colored Church in Savannah. This son of 
Africa, after suffering inexpressible persecutions in the 
cause of his divine Master, was at length permitted to 
discharge the duties of the ministry among his colored 
friends in peace and quiet, hundreds of whom, through 
his instrumentality, were brought to a knowledge of the 
truth as "it is in Jesus." He closed his extensively 
useful and amazingly luminous course in the lively exer- 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 315 

cise of faith and in the joyful hope of a happy immor- 
tality. 

The mantle of Andrew Bryan fell upon his 
nephew, Andrew Marshall, who prosecuted with 
vigor the work in the midst of the slave population 
in Southern Georgia, until his death in 1856. 

One of the most notable of the colored Baptists of 
the South was Lot Cary, who was the first colored 
missionary to go from America to Africa. Cary 
was born near the close of the eighteenth century, 
and in his early manhood was notoriously corrupt 
and vicious. In 1804 he was laboring as a com- 
mon slave in a tobacco warehouse in Richmond, 
Virginia. Converted in 1807, he became a mem- 
ber of the First Baptist Church (white), of Rich- 
mond, there being at that time no organized colored 
churches in the South. 1 

From the galleries of the old First Church in 
Richmond, Cary heard a thrilling sermon based 
upon the conversation of our Lord with Nicodemus. 
Here was born in his heart a desire to preach, that 
he might tell this thrilling story to others. Finding 
a friendly tutor in a young white man, Cary was 
soon able to read the New Testament, and was 
licensed to preach. He became enthusiastic in his 
work among the blacks in Richmond, and was soon 

1 When converts among the slaves began to multiply, galleries 
and adjoining compartments to the main audience rooms of the 
churches were provided for the accommodation of the colored 
people, who attended upon the same services with the whites. 



316 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

a controlling factor among them. His avidity for 
reading led him to purchase a small but indiscrim- 
inate lot of books which he usually picked up from 
the shelves of cheap venders. This scanty and 
heterogeneous library he kept within easy reach, 
that no opportunity might be lost for mental im- 
provement. Every snatch of leisure in the ware- 
house was devoted to his books. A passer-by in 
the warehouse happened to pick up one of Cary's 
books on one occasion and found that he had been 
cudgeling his brain with Adam Smith's "Wealth 
of Nations." It was a book — something to be 
read — and that was sufficient to the enslaved stu- 
dent. He had chanced upon it, no doubt, at some 
cheap book-stall, or at a miscellaneous auction, and 
was seeking to unravel its contents. Like his 
namesake, William Carey, he numbered among his 
possessions " The Voyages of Captain Cook." Who 
can deny that in the unfolding of the life of this 
wonderful man God's hand was in the direction of 
his tutelage? 

By a careful preservation of the bits of tobacco 
lying about the floor of the warehouse, which were 
given him, and by an economical hoarding of the 
generous " tips " of the merchants whom he served 
in divers ways, Cary finally accumulated eight 
hundred and fifty dollars, with which he purchased 
his freedom and that of his children, his wife having 
been previously freed by the hand of death. He 
had no difficulty in obtaining work, as his reputation 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 317 

for honesty was well known in the business circles 
of Richmond. He was one of the principal agents 
in the formation of the African Missionary Soci- 
ety of Richmond, which society was organized in 
1815 — one of the first organized in America. 
Within five years this society raised seven hundred 
dollars, which was made up largely of the con- 
tributions of the Christian slaves. 

Though the possessor of a pleasant home, which 
he had purchased, and though prosperous in business, 
Cary felt desirous of going to Africa as a missionary. 
His employer having learned of this desire, sought 
to dissuade him from such a purpose, and increased 
his wages by way of inducement to reconsider ; but 
the consecrated preacher could not be moved. He 
surrendered his position, sold his attractive home, 
and offered himself to the Triennial Convention for 
work in Africa. In company with Colin Teage, 
another colored preacher, Cary sailed for Africa 
in January, 1821. These men began their labors 
among the Bassas, at Monrovia, Liberia, in 1822. 
After laboring for one year they baptized six, and 
the year succeeding nine more were baptized. Of 
the wonderful career of these ex-slaves more cannot 
be said than that a marvelous work was done in the 
conversion of many native Africans and in instruct- 
ing them in the principles of government. 

The numerical increase of the colored Baptists of 
the South is largely due to the interest which was 
manifested in the Negro in the early stages of 



318 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

Southern history. White missionaries were engaged 
by the district Associations to visit the populous 
plantations and to preach to the blacks. Many of 
our most devoted home missionaries were preachers 
to the slaves upon the plantations. Sometimes the 
owner of many slaves would engage, upon a stated 
salary, the services of such men, and again the 
churches and Associations would assign them to 
such work. Again, where ministerial gifts were 
developed among converted slaves they were some- 
times liberated and appointed to labor as mission- 
aries. Respectful consideration was not withheld 
from the Christian slaves even from the earliest pe- 
riods of Southern history. So early as 1793 a 
church composed exclusively of colored people in 
the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, was admitted 
into the Dover Association, and they have continued 
all along to send delegates to the annual meetings 
of that body. 1 

In 1828, the Alabama Association purchased a 
slave named Caesar, at the cost of six hundred and 
twenty-five dollars, and set him apart to the gospel 
ministry to labor among his people. This man of 
God, though as black as Erebus, was the companion 
in labors for many years of James McLemore, a 
white evangelist of local note in Alabama. Caesar 
was universally respected alike for his piety and his 
ability as a preacher, and not infrequently would 
address audiences composed entirely of whites. 

1 Semple, " History of the Baptists in Virginia," p. 126. 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 319 

Another slave, Dock Phillips, who was a preacher 
of power and of commanding influence among his 
people, the Tuskegee Association undertook to pur- 
chase in order that he might be appointed a mission- 
ary ; but he declined to be severed from his master, 
who allowed him whatever time he might desire for 
preaching. 

At this period there were but few separate organ- 
izations of the blacks in the South. In the centers 
of population an occasional colored church was to be 
met with. In Savannah, Georgia, there were three 
such churches, the pastors of which were sustained 
by one-third of the Negro population of the city, at 
salaries ranging from eight hundred to one thousand 
dollars a year. 1 At other points colored churches 
were presided over by white pastors, as was true 
of the Anthony Street Church, Mobile, Alabama, 
where Rev. Keidor Hawthorne was pastor. Another 
notable instance is afforded by the First African 
Church of Richmond, Virginia, of which Dr. Robert 
Ryland, then president of Richmond College, served 
as pastor. He sustained this relation for a period 
of twenty-five years, a fact that denotes devotion and 
affection on the part of both, and baptized during 
that time not less than three thousand blacks. 

The custom of licensing and ordaining colored 

ministers was prevalent in the South up to 1825, 

after which date the practice was abandoned and in 

some of the States of the South, laws were enacted 

1 Edward Ingle, "Southern Sidelights." 



320 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

forbidding slaves to be taught to read. 1 This grew 
out of the apprehension that if thus taught they 
would chafe under the restraint of servitude, and 
possibly beget insurrectionary trouble. As has been 
seen, these statutes, however moderate or severe, 
were utterly ignored in thousands of instances, and 
housemaids and butlers were taught to read and 
write. The easily impressionable nature of the 
Negro has made him readily susceptible to the 
gospel, and he is usually a most enthusiastic auditor. 
During slavery in the South Negroes attended in 
vast throngs services held on the plantations. Their 
stentorian melody of praise, unrestrained by conven- 
tionality, was often heard at considerable distances as 
they would heartily throw their souls into the worship. 
When the slaves attended upon the same churches as 
the whites, the former generally outnumbered the lat- 
ter, and when the Lord's Supper was observed, slaves 
communed with their masters. Among the notable 
instances of the devotion of colored Baptists to 
their principles may be mentioned the fact that, 
in portions of Louisiana which were completely 
under the domination of the French Catholics 
where the religion of the Romanist alone pre- 
vailed, the Negro slaves of these people were al- 
lowed to engage in no other form of worship than 
that of the Roman Catholic. 



1 The States of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina, and Virginia had express provisions in their laws against 
the instruction of free Negroes. 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 321 

After their emancipation the fact became known 
that these enslaved people had secretly maintained 
Baptist worship for a long period of years. They 
had their regular organizations upon the planta- 
tions — their preachers, their deacons — all. Under 
the cover of darkness in unfrequented quarters these 
Baptist slaves would hold their services as noise- 
lessly as possible, and observe the ordinances in due 
form. One feature of Romish worship greatly im- 
pressed these benighted slaves, and that was the 
baptism of infants. To the ignorant slave there 
was a fetich fascination in this ceremony, and long 
after the period of emancipation, colored Baptist 
preachers in some portions of Louisiana used the 
ceremony of the sprinkling of infants with water as 
an act of the consecration of the child to the Lord. 

The records of the Baptist organizations in the 
South, prior to the Civil War, abound in allusions 
to provisions made for Christianizing the Negro. 
Believing that more could be accomplished by mem- 
bers of their own race in Africa than by white mis- 
sionaries, two colored men — J. Day and A. L. 
Jones — were sent in 1846, by the Southern Baptist 
Convention, to the Dark Continent. These were 
followed by others at later periods. 

Considered as a body, the colored Baptists of the 
South, according to the eleventh census, 1890, con- 
stitute the most numerous section of Regular Bap- 
tists in the world. Multitudinous as these figures 
show the colored Baptists to be, they do not include 



322 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 



all American Negro Baptists. Many of these reside 
in the North and are quite generally members of 
white churches and are counted with them without 
distinction, in the census aggregate. 

There are many others who are not included in 
the great national count, because of obscure rural 
churches and of Associations of colored Baptists 
which were not reached by the census officers. 
Many again failed, for divers reasons, to respond 
to repeated requests made by the national officials 
to clerks or moderators for statistics. It is pre- 
sumed that a third or more of the colored Baptist 
Associations of the South failed to furnish adequate 
statistics of numbers and of property. Notwith- 
standing this, we have the figures given below. 1 

1 Georgia leads with 200,516 colored Baptists ; Virginia, 199,. 
871; Alabama, 142,437; Mississippi, 136,647; North Carolina, 
134,445; South Carolina, 125,572; Tennessee, 52,183; Kentucky, 
50,245 ; Florida, 20,828 ; District of Columbia, 12,717 ; Maryland, 
7,750 ; West Virginia, 4,233 ; Louisiana, 68,008. The grand aggre- 
gate for the States named, together with the District of Columbia, 
is 1,087,445. The following table furnishes additional data of in- 
terest respecting colored Baptists : 

ORGANIZA- CHURCH SEATING VALUE CHURCH 
TIONS. EDIFICES. CAPACITY. PROPERTY. 

Alabama 1,374 1,341 376,839 $ 795,384 

District of Columbia.. 43 33 18,600 383,150 

Florida 329 295 61,588 ■ 137,578 

Georgia 1,818 1,800 544,546 1,045,310 

Kentucky 378 359 109,030 406,949 

Louisiana 865 861 191,041 609,890 

Maryland 38 34 12,389 150,475 

Mississippi 1,385 1,333 371,115 682,541 

North Carolina 1,173 1,164 362,946 705,512 

South Carolina 860 836 275,529 699,961 

Tennessee 569 534 159,140 519,923 

Virginia 1,001 977 356,032 1,192.035 

West Virginia 79 50 14,175 59,090 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 323 

For reasons already assigned, the colored Bap- 
tists of the South were not wholly unprepared to 
withdraw from the churches of the whites and to 
enter into independent organizations, when the 
period of emancipation came. This was clearly 
seen to be the wisest step possible on the part of the 
blacks, and yet they were not left wholly uncared 
for by the whites. Wherever aid was sought, and 
it could be extended, it was cordially given to the 
struggling blacks. In the work of organization, 
both of churches and of Associations, in the ordina- 
tion of ministers and deacons, and in the erection 
of schoolhouses and church buildings, substantial 
aid was cheerfully rendered. 

There has been, on the part of the colored Bap- 
tists, a most commendable progress in the develop- 
ment of church life. So soon as they were able to 
do so, they organized themselves into district Asso- 
ciations, then into the more general bodies of State 
and national Conventions. The colored Baptists of 
North Carolina were • the first to organize a State 
Convention, which was done in 1866, with Alabama 
and Virginia following in 1867. Later, there came 
in point of time Arkansas and Kentucky, to be fol- 
lowed by the other States of the South still later. 

As soon as this spirit of organization began to 
prevail in the States of the South, representative 
colored men came from the North to assist and 
direct in the matter of affiliation with the larger 
bodies. 



324 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

In August, 1866, the twenty-sixth anniversary of 
the colored Missionary Convention was held in 
Richmond, Virginia, when it was determined to 
consolidate all of the general interests of colored 
Baptists — the Missionary, Northwestern, and South- 
ern Conventions — into one body, which was called 
the Consolidated American Baptist Missionary Con- 
vention. Eleven years later, this consolidated body 
met again in Richmond, when some very decided 
differences of opinion arose respecting questions of 
management and extent of jurisdiction. Disruption 
for a time threatened the body, but it was pre- 
served. Dissolution ultimately came, however, until 
now the field embraced by the States of the South is 
included in the Baptist Foreign Missionary Conven- 
tion of the United States, which body was formed 
in 1880. In 1883, this Convention sent six mis- 
sionaries to Africa — J. H. Presley and W. W. 
Colley, together with their wives, and J. J. Coles 
and H. McKinney. 

The American National Baptist Convention was 
organized in 1886 in St. Louis. It was a large 
representative body of six hundred delegates from 
seventeen States. The advancement of the colored 
people was indicated by the fact that there were 
present " graduates in law, medicine, and theology ; 
professors of philosophy, German, French, Latin, 
Greek, and Hebrew ; a number of State ex-repre- 
sentatives and ex-senators ; two lieutenant-govern- 
ors ; editors and teachers, not a few ; a Baptist 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 325 

senator from Mississippi ; and a Baptist missionary 
from London, England." Eev. T. L. Johnson, one 
of the speakers of the occasion said : " Knox lifted 
up Scotland ; Luther lifted up Germany ; and it is 
for us to lift up the heathen in the land of our 
fathers." l 

The genuine orthodoxy of this body was set forth 
in 1890, when a resolution was adopted recommend- 
ing that the practice of receiving into membership 
persons immersed into Pedobaptist churches be 
discontinued, on the ground that Pedobaptist or- 
ganizations are not churches, and therefore have no 
power to administer baptism. The exchange of 
pulpits with Pedobaptists was also condemned as 
" inconsistent and erroneous." 2 

The colored Baptists of all the States of the 
South have nearly thirty schools of high grade, 
which are largely devoted to the preparation of 
preachers and teachers. The first of these to be 
organized was that of Roger Williams University, 
at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1864. It has a col- 
lege property valued at two hundred and five thou- 
sand dollars. The next two schools were founded 
respectively at Raleigh, N. C, and Washington, 
D. C, in 1865; the first, Shaw University, hav- 
ing a property valued at two hundred and fifteen 
thousand five hundred dollars, and the second, 
Way land Seminary, the property of which is valued 

1 Dr. Cook's " Story of the Baptists," p. 423. 
2 Dr. H. K. Carroll, " The Religious Forces of the U. S.," p. 28. 



326 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

at one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. In 
1867, the Atlanta Seminary was founded, and now 
it has a property, the total valuation of which is 
eighty-five thousand five hundred dollars. The 
Benedict College, at Columbia, founded in 1870, 
has a property estimated at one hundred and twelve 
thousand dollars. In 1873, the Florida Institute 
was established at Live Oak, and its property valu- 
ation is ten thousand and fifty dollars. In Jackson, 
Mississippi, is Jackson College, organized in 1877, 
and its property is estimated to be worth twenty- 
five thousand dollars. The Selma University was 
established at Selma, Alabama, in 1878, and it owns 
a property valued at twenty thousand two hundred 
and fifty dollars. The college of Kentucky for 
colored Baptists, is located at Louisville, and is 
known as the State University. It was founded in 
1879, and owns a property valued at thirty thousand 
five hundred dollars. Spelman Seminary, of At- 
lanta, Georgia, was instituted in 1881, and owns a 
property the valuation of which is one hundred and 
fifty-three thousand dollars. Leland University 
was established in 1870 at New Orleans, Louisiana, 
and possesses a most valuable property, estimated 
to be worth one hundred and sixty thousand dol- 
lars. These are the principal schools which are 
under the management of the colored Baptists in 
the Southern States east of the Mississippi. Most 
of these schools are the result of Northern bene- 
factions, and most of them, as well as others of less 



COLORED BAPTISTS AND THEIR WORK 327 

note, are maintained by the American Baptist Home 
Mission Society. 

Among the periodicals owned and conducted by 
the colored Baptists of the region of country under 
consideration may be named : " The African Expos- 
itor/ 7 Raleigh, N. C. ; " American Baptist," Louis- 
ville, Ky. ; " Baptist Messenger," Jackson, Miss. ; 
" Georgia Baptist" and " Weekly Sentinel," Au- 
gusta, Ga. ; " Baptist Signal," Greenville, Miss. ; 
" The Living Way " and " Memphis Watchman," 
Memphis, Tenn. ; " Richmond Planet " and " Afri- 
can Missions," Richmond, Ya. ; " West Virginia 
Enterprise," Charlestown, W. Va. ; " Baptist Trib- 
une," Columbia, S. C. ; " Baptist Leader," Mont- 
gomery, Ala. ; and " Baptist Review," Atlanta, Ga. 
The most of these are strictly denominational in 
character. A large number of papers are issued by 
the colored Baptists of the South which are politico- 
religious, while others are entirely political. One 
of the most promising features of the race is that 
they are omnivorous readers. 

Allusion has been made to the fondness which 
the colored man has for meetings of a religious 
character. Coupled with this, was his equal fond- 
ness for the diversion afforded by the " shuffle " and 
" the breakdown." It was the care of many mas- 
ters during the days of slavery that diversions be 
had by the slaves on Saturday night. In order to 
this, labor was often suspended before the close of 
the day. As a result the Negro quarters upon the 



328 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

plantations of the South would resound every Sat- 
urday night with the music of " the fiddle and the 
bow," the clapping of hands, the rattling of bones, 
and hilarious laughter. This was responded to by 
the shuffle and thump of agile dancers. Often till 
the wee sma' hours was this hilarity indulged in. 
But all this has changed. One rarely hears now 
the tumult of the dancers in the Negro quarters of 
the South. The rude frolic of former days has been 
almost entirely supplanted by the religious gather- 
ing. Instead of the strains of the banjo and violin, 
one hears now the song of praise and the voice of 
exhortation. The changes wrought in this people, 
and the progress made under such conditions, make 
them one of the most remarkable races of history. 
In their religious inclinations, the Negroes are 
Baptists. Even when becoming members of other 
denominations they frequently insist upon immer- 
sion as the only baptism. In his work entitled — 
" Men of Mark — Eminent, Professional, and Ris- 
ing," Dr. W. J. Simmons, the well-known colored 
preacher, insists with evident satisfaction : " I claim 
that there are in the United States, more colored 
Baptists than white Baptists, and more colored Bap- 
tists than all Pedobaptists together." 



CHAPTER XV 

CONCLUSION 

Having traced the development of the Baptist 
denomination in the Southern States east of the 
Mississippi, through a period of more than two 
hundred years, we are able, from the present ground 
of advantage, to review the eventful eras through 
which we have come, and to study with interest, and 
perhaps with profit, the causes which have contrib- 
uted to our growth. Far beneath the movements 
of men and communities, of churches and conven- 
tions, lie the philosophy of deeds and the instruction 
of events 

That on the stretched forefinger of all Time 
Sparkle forever. 

It is a fact worthy of attention that, though in 
the beginning the principles of liberty advocated 
by Baptist pioneers in America were stoutly resisted 
at every step, they have become the fundamental 
law of the land. Consistent and meritorious ag- 
gression has overborne the most forbidding obstruc- 
tions and has contributed, in the largest degree, to 
the freedom now enjoyed throughout this broad 
land of States. Along with the inculcation of these 

329 



330 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

principles which underlie our national framework, 
has been a development of the people who were 
their chief supporters in the outset ; and have been 
their uncompromising patrons to the present. Nay, 
the denomination has vastly outgrown the nation. 
While in the United States the population has in- 
creased sixteen-fold, the Baptists of the country 
have grown fifty-six-fold, or nearly four times as 
fast as the population of the country. 

Nor can this marvelous growth be attributed to 
immigration, for statistics abundantly show that 
while other denominations have derived great nu- 
merical increase from immigration, Baptists have 
derived little or no benefit therefrom. In the sec- 
tion of States under review in this work, the number 
of regular Baptists alone has reached the enormous 
figure of one million eight hundred and eight thou- 
sand three hundred and seven. 

In their relation to the outlying heathen world, 
Baptists sustain missionary facilities that do great 
honor to the wisdom of the fathers of the denomi- 
nation. Systems well constructed and properly 
adapted to the evangelization of the heathen have 
been founded and are in successful operation. Im- 
mense organizations established upon the most im- 
proved methods of success for eliciting, combining, 
and directing beneficent agencies, are under Baptist 
control, and are directed with methodical success. 
Missionary representatives are at work in the 
crowded centers, the neglected districts, and on the 



CONCLUSION 331 

remote frontier regions of America — in Mexico, 
Cuba, Brazil, China, Italy, Africa, and Japan. 

In the early settlement of the country and until 
a considerable period after the Revolution, American 
Baptists, as a body, were an illiterate folk. Their 
ignorance won for them the contempt of ecclesiasti- 
cal opponents. But, at different times, there were 
developed a few great leaders like Manning and 
Maxcy, and later, of Wayland at the North, and 
of Furman, Holcombe, and Mercer at the South, 
who combined scholarship with sturdy good sense, 
and were denomination builders, on the educational 
side. Directing with skill the scanty resources at 
command, and marshaling with adroitness every 
encouragement developed, these earnest men of God 
provided a leverage for the future elevation of the 
Baptists of America. While with a great people 
who had obtained a popular foothold in every 
State, there must needs have been blunders, es- 
pecially where so much was undertaken in educa- 
tional work, still the close of the second century of 
Baptist history finds the denomination with many 
institutions of high grade, attaining indeed to the 
highest, most widely distributed and deservedly pop- 
ular throughout the country. 

While in the South many of these interests were 
prostrated as a result of the Civil War, most of 
them have been revived, and are to-day among the 
most powerful and salutary forces of our civiliza- 
tion. With the freedom of the slave came the 



332 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHEEN STATES 

establishment of schools for his elevation in the 
scale of moral and intellectual excellence. These 
give to colored Baptists numerous advantages over 
those colored representatives of other denominations 
in the States most populous with that race. 

Baptists were the first of the denominations of 
the South to lay hold of the press as an engine of 
strength and progress. As the region has grown in 
population and in prosperity, this agency has im- 
proved, and its influence has broadened, until it has 
become a stupendous factor in the States of the 
South. 

Among the chief elements of success which have 
come into the possession of Baptists is that of wealth. 
Prior to the Civil War, many Baptists in the South 
were very wealthy ; but with the crash of Southern 
institutions came the destruction of most of the 
wealth of this section. But there has been a grad- 
ual rehabilitation of thousands of estates together 
with the production of wealth from many new 
sources. In this, Baptists who constitute so large 
a percentage of the population have, of course, 
shared. By reason of their overwhelming numbers 
in some of the States, they own a preponderance of 
property as compared with other denominations. 
Combined with other advantageous elements, this 
gives to Baptists social position. 

But the chief source of visible strength to the 
Baptists is the firm hold which they have upon the 
sturdy middle class of the country. They reach 



CONCLUSION 333 

and control more of that class perhaps than any 
other denomination of Christians on the continent. 
From the beginning this has been a basal element 
of denominational strength, and to this fact may be 
largely attributed Baptist achievements in America. 

Such are some of the chief advantages enjoyed by 
the Baptists of America. Should denominational 
success continue at the same ratio of increase to the 
close of the twentieth century, Baptist influence will 
be beyond competition. 

But while these advantages exist, and they are 
considerable, are there no possible drawbacks to 
Baptist growth and influence ? Are there no snares 
besetting the future? In a land of unparalleled 
prosperity there is grave danger arising from a 
spirit of worldliness. Baptists have endured the 
ordeal of struggle and affliction and have thriven ; 
will they be able to thrive with the increasing pros- 
perity of the country ? 

The solidity of church life has been preserved by 
the exercise of a wholesome discipline in the local 
organizations. The inroads of worldliness will in- 
evitably impair this distinct feature of our churches 
and invite decay. One of the direct results of 
worldliness is a decline of benevolence. Should 
that spirit decline rather than increase with the 
material prosperity with which the churches are 
blessed, disastrous results will follow. Upon Bap- 
tists more than upon others rests the responsibility 
of meeting this strain. If so much has been accom- 



334 HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

plished in spite of persecution and opposition, how 
much greater should be denominational success with 
these obstructions entirely removed, and with im- 
mense prosperity at ready command. 

Another danger springing from the spirit of the 
times is that of superficiality of results. The appre- 
hension is not without foundation that as we increase 
numerically there is danger of a corresponding spir- 
itual loss. Church progress has come to be esti- 
mated too much by the enrollment upon the church 
register. There is a widespread desire for increased 
numbers rather than for increased efficiency. Pas- 
tors are sought who " draw r " rather than those who 
build. In the craze for large accessions, organiza- 
tion is neglected, discrimination and caution are not 
exercised in the reception of members, and convert 
culture goes for naught. 

Krummacher is credited with the saying, " The 
Baptists have a future." The statement of the 
German theologian is suggestive of the fact that 
Baptists are charged with a peculiar mission which 
is as yet unfulfilled. They have succeeded as a 
people in making their impress upon the world 
alone by their fidelity to the sacred trusts com- 
mitted to them. Their influence is discovered by 
the practical adoption of their views by a large 
number of Pedobaptist churches. The steady and 
consistent observance of the principles held all 
along by Baptists has gradually brought into dis- 
repute infant baptism ; and in proportion to the 



conclusion 335 

decline of this practice has been the growth of the 
doctrine of immersion. In consideration of their 
numbers, influence, resources, and opportunities, the 
possibility of future achievement seems boundless. 

The story of the Baptists of the South for two 
hundred years is one unequaled by that of any 
other people in the annals of time. From a few 
struggling outposts along the Atlantic, in the begin- 
ning scarcely daring the deed of self-assertion lest a 
storm of persecution be invoked, they have become 
a people multitudinous in number, and of immense 
resources. Pitied and despised by an arrogance 
that accounted their forefathers the offscouring of 
the earth, resisted by an intolerance whose self- 
devotion blinded it to the noblest elements of char- 
acter, and overridden by a haughtiness whose self- 
ishness withheld all suffrage save that doled out by 
stinted hands, Baptists have thriven in this goodly 
land and have expanded as the garden of the Lord. 
Opposition has made them great. The benediction 
has come to the reviled and persecuted. 

To-day we are confronted by the danger of undue 
consciousness of greatness that may be a reversal of 
the law by which we have attained the commanding 
heights. There is appprehension lest our humility 
be transformed into the very intolerance against 
which an humble spiritual ancestry strove and 
became great. Insidious pride follows fast upon 
human success, and multiplies pitfalls in exact 
proportion to achievement. The Chaldean mon- 



336 HISTOEY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES 

arch was within a single stride of the level of the 
grazing herds when puffed with vanity he paced his 
capital walls and gloried in his grandeur ; while the 
Hebrew prophet was greatest in his dungeon with 
the command ringing in his ears : " Buy the field 
that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is 
thine to buy it." 

Restraint of independent thought and an arbi- 
trary erection of barriers against expressed indi- 
vidual opinion — barriers as inexorable as the ram- 
parts of the sea, saying, " Thus far shalt thou go 
and no farther," is akin to the intolerance that built 
the Inquisition. 

Questions and problems, grave and complicated, 
are destined to be raised in the future as in the 
past. These cannot be met with fiery zeal and im- 
petuous intolerance. In matters of grave import 
the wise counsel of Gamaliel is suited alike to all 
times : " If this counsel or this work be of men, it 
will be overthrown : but if it is of God, ye will not 
be able to overthrow them ; lest haply ye be found 
even to be fighting against God." * 

^^8 5:38, 39., It. V. 



APPENDIX A 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 

Besides that great family of Baptists, the history 
of which is briefly presented in this volume, there 
are others, ten in number, each of which bears a 
distinct name, and are expressive of the professed 
principles of each. These are : the Seventh Day, 
Six Principle, Freewill, Original Freewill, General, 
Separate, United, Baptist Church of Christ, Anti- 
missionary, and Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predes- 
tinarian Baptists. 

All these agree in two particulars, viz. : 

1. That the only subjects of Christian baptism 
are those who have been converted and profess per- 
sonal faith in Christ, and 

2. That the only scriptural baptism is immersion. 

It is hardly necessary to say that they reject in- 
fant baptism as invalid, and sprinkling or pouring 
as unscriptural. 

There are still other denominations, akin to the 

Baptists, which accept these principles wholly, or in 

part, such as the Disciples of Christ, Christians, 

Mennonites, and others, but they are not Baptists, 

and are never so classified. 

w 337 



338 APPENDIX A 

The Disciples of Christ accept the principles 
named, but they also insist that only through baptism 
does " divine assurance of remission of sins and ac- 
ceptance with God" come. The Christians generally 
insist upon the immersion of believers, but will accept 
pouring or sprinkling. The Mennonites believe in 
pouring and usually adopt this. The Regular Bap- 
tists are divided into Northern, Southern, and Col- 
ored. In doctrine, they are Calvinistic. The Free- 
will Baptists, in both its branches, together with the 
General Baptists, and others, are Arminian. The 
Anti-missionary Baptists, of which there are two or 
three bodies, are hyper-Calvinistic. 

The Seventh Day Baptists. — Originally these 
were called Sabbatarian Baptists. They appeared 
in England in the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. They derive their name from the observance 
of Saturday as a sacred day, or as a day of rest. 
This body was known as Sabbatarians, or Sabba- 
tarian Baptists, until the General Conference of the 
body in 1818, when the name was changed to that 
of Seventh Day Baptists. The first Seventh Day 
Baptist church established in America was founded 
at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1671. Stephen Mum- 
ford, of England, was its founder. From this colony 
have come all the people of that name to be found 
to-day in different portions of the United States. 
Reaching southward, Philadelphia, and Piscataway, 
New Jersey, became other distributing centers. 



OTHEK BAPTIST FAMILIES 339 

They entered the South in 1754, when Rev. John 
Gregory led a colony from Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey into South Carolina, and they organized a 
church on Broad River, in St. Mark's Parish. In 
1769 or 1770, eight other families removed from 
Chester (now Delaware County), Pennsylvania, and 
joined them. A revival of religion followed this 
event, when twenty-four members were added to 
the church. At that time they were a prosperous 
community of eighteen families. This is as far as 
trustworthy records can trace them. 

From this time they disappear from history. 
They were located possibly not far from the present 
town of Manning, South Carolina. The principal 
families of the colony were named Price, Hughes, 
Johnston, Owen, Jackson, Gregory, Nelly, Seymour, 
and Noble. Were they absorbed by the Regular 
Baptists of that region ? 

In 1759 Rev. Richard Gregory led a company of 
eight families into the Tuckaseeking region, about 
forty miles north of Savannah, and organized a 
Seventh Day Baptist church. Richard Gregory 
preceded Daniel Marshall at Kiokee about twelve 
years. This colony of Seventh Day Baptists left 
Kiokee in 1765 and returned across the Savannah 
River and settled at Edisto, South Carolina. Other 
traces of these people are found in North Carolina, 
but they are dim. 

The Seventh Day Baptists hold the views gen- 
erally held by the great Baptist family, and differ 



340 APPENDIX A 

from the others chiefly by observing the seventh 
instead of the first day of the week, as a sacred day. 
" They believe that the seventh day is the Sabbath 
of the Lord, that it was instituted in Eden, promul- 
gated at Sinai, made binding upon all men at all 
times and is, in the nature of its relation to God 
and to man, irrepealable. They hold that any at- 
tempt to connect the Sabbath law and obligation 
with any other day of the week is illogical, and 
tends to destroy the institution." l 

These people have suffered persecution in some of 
the States for the disregard of Sunday as a sacred 
day. This has been true both in Tennessee and in 
Georgia. 

They have two collegiate institutions, one located 
at Milton, Wisconsin, and the other at Alfred Cen- 
ter, New York. The denomination is represented 
in twenty-four States. Of the States which come 
within the compass of treatment in this volume, in 
which the Seventh Day Baptists exist, are Alabama, 
Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, 
West Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee, having a 
total membership in the States named of nine hun- 
dred and thirty. 

The Freewill Baptists. — This organization 
sprang up in New Durham, New Hampshire, in 
1780. Its representatives derive their name from 
the doctrine held by them concerning the will. The 

1 Dr. H. K. Carroll, " Religious Forces in the U. S.," p. 31. 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 341 

founder of the sect, Benjamin Randall was at first 
a Congregationalist, but his views undergoing a 
change, he became a Baptist. Refusing to accept 
the doctrines usually held by the Baptists at that 
time, concerning predestination, election, a limited 
atonement, and the final perseverance of the saints, 
he was accounted unsound and fellowship was 
promptly denied him. This occurred in 1779. 
The following year he secured ordination at the 
hands of two Baptist ministers who coincided with 
him in his views. The Freewill Baptist church 
which he forthwith organized was, like all others in 
New England at the time, spoken of simply as a 
Baptist church. Within the next twenty years, the 
members of these churches being popularly called 
" Freewillers," the distinctive name of " Freewill " 
was adopted. From New England, the Freewill 
Baptists gradually extended into the West. No 
doubt headway would have been made in the South 
in the early periods of the century, but the founders 
of the organization were vehemently opposed to 
slavery. This opposition found pronounced expres- 
sion in 1835, when the general conference of the 
Freewill Baptists put the stamp of condemnation 
upon African slavery. 

The Freewill Baptist churches multiplied from the 
beginning. After the lapse of half a century they 
had four hundred and fifty churches, with twenty-one 
thousand members. In 1841 they united with the 
Free Communion Baptists of New York, and their 



342 APPENDIX A 

numbers were increased by the addition of fifty-five 
churches and two thousand five hundred members. 
Later, however, the Freewill Baptists sustained 
losses by local dissensions through the Adventist 
movement. They suffered also as a result of the 
war, as both ministers and members largely enlisted 
in the Union armies. Having a membership of 
sixty thousand in 1845, they had the same number 
in 1870. During the intervening quarter of a 
century the denomination had grown, and yet, by 
varying fortune, it had lost. Since that time, its 
numbers have gradually increased until, in 1890, 
there were, in the United States, eighty-seven thou- 
sand eight hundred and ninety-eight Freewill Bap- 
tists. As early as 1791 women began to labor 
among this people as preachers. It is a custom 
with them to grant ordination to such women as 
desire to serve as ministers. 

Freewill Baptists hold that while man cannot, in 
his fallen state, become a child of God by natural 
goodness and personal effort, redemption and regen- 
eration are freely provided for him. This admits 
of application to every one, for the " call of the gos- 
pel is coextensive with the atonement to all men/' 
so that salvation is "equally possible to all." They 
insist that the " truly regenerate" are "through in- 
firmity and manifold temptations" in "danger of 
falling," and "ought therefore to watch and pray 
lest they make shipwreck of faith." Their position 
upon baptism and the Lord's Supper is that they 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 343 

hold immersion alone as baptism, and insist upon it 
that it is the " privilege and duty of all who have 
spiritual union with Christ " to participate in the 
observance of the Supper. 

With emphasis they declare that " no man has a 
right to forbid these tokens to the least of his dis- 
ciples." This declaration, of course, indicates that 
the denomination advocates what is usually known 
as " open communion." 

The Articles of Faith provided for the churches 
declare that the " human will " is " free and self- 
determined, having power to yield to gracious in- 
fluences and live, or resist them and perish." They 
declare that the doctrine of election is not an " un- 
conditional decree " which fixes the future state of 
man, but that it is simply God's determination 
" from the beginning to save all who should comply 
with the conditions of salvation." 

The general meetings of the Freewill Baptists are 
called conferences. They hold quarterly and yearly 
conferences, and a general Conference, which meets 
every two years. These are representative bodies. 
A quarterly Conference represents a restricted terri- 
tory embracing a given number of churches. Its 
functions are almost altogether advisory. 

The quarterly Conference inquires into the condi- 
tion of the churches and is empowered to advise, ad- 
monish, or withdraw fellowship from them. It may 
not, however, " deprive a church of its independent 
form of government, nor its right to discipline its 



344 APPENDIX A 

members nor labor with individual members of 
churches as such " ; to deal with the churches only 
as churches and not with individuals, is what is pro- 
vided for in the polity of the denomination. The 
quarterly Conference selects delegates for the annual 
Conference. It sustains the same relation to the 
quarterly Conference that the quarterly Conference 
does to the individual churches. The general Con- 
ference, which has the oversight of all the interests 
of the denomination, derives its delegates from the 
annual Conference. While it has a general over- 
sight of the denomination, its disciplinary jurisdic- 
tion is limited to the yearly meeting. It cannot 
reach beyond these and interfere with the action 
either of the quarterly meeting or of the churches. 
It is absolutely without power to reverse the de- 
cisions of any of the subordinate bodies. Candi- 
dates for the ministry derive licenses, for a year 
only, from the quarterly meeting. Ordination is 
granted by a council of the quarterly meeting. The 
church officers are those of pastor, clerk, and treas- 
urer, together with an elected Board of deacons who, 
besides attending to the temporalities of the church, 
assist at baptism, serve at the Lord's Supper, and 
take charge of meetings during the absence of the 
pastor. The strength of the denomination is chiefly 
in the North and West. Of the States under review 
in this volume, the statistics are as follows : Ala- 
bama has a membership of eight hundred and forty- 
seven ; Florida, a membership of twenty-two ; Ken- 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 345 

tucky, a membership of one thousand six hundred 
and forty-one ; Maryland, a membership of ninety- 
eight ; Mississippi, a membership of one thousand 
three hundred and thirty-nine ; North Carolina, a 
membership of eleven ; Tennessee, a membership of 
two thousand eight hundred and sixty-four ; Vir- 
ginia, a membership of four hundred and seventy- 
eight; and West Virginia, a membership of one 
thousand six hundred and sixty-eight. 

The Original Freewill Baptists. — These 
are a remnant of the General Baptists who settled in 
North Carolina in the first half of the eighteenth 
century. The territory in North Carolina occupied 
by them lay contiguous to that which was occupied 
by the General Baptists in Virginia. 

In each of these colonies they formed an Associa- 
tion. In 1787, the General and Regular Baptists 
united upon a Calvinistic basis. There were a few 
Freewillers who did not go into the coalition. 
Eventually they came to be known as Original 
Freewill Baptists. Probably the term " original " 
carries with it the idea that they precede, in point 
of time, the existence of those who afterward came 
to be knoAvn as Freewill Baptists. 

In doctrine they declare that Christ " freely gave 
himself a ransom for all, tasting death for every 
man " ; that God desires that all come to repentance ; 
that " all men, at one time or another are found in 
such capacity as that through the grace of God they 



346 APPENDIX A 

may be eternally saved " ; that those " ordained to 
condemnation " are only the unrighteous who refuse 
to accept the gospel offer of salvation ; that infants 
Avho die are not subject to the second death; that 
God has not decreed any person to everlasting 
death or everlasting life out of respect or mere 
choice, only as he appoints " the godly unto life and 
the ungodly who die in sin unto death " ; that only 
believers are to be baptized, and that immersion 
alone is baptism. They also observe foot- washing, 
and anoint the sick with oil. Foot- washing and 
communion are observed every quarter. 

Conference for church business is held quarterly. 
Every member is allowed a voice in the transaction 
of the business of the church. The officers of a 
church are, a pastor, clerk, treasurer, and deacons 
who look after the temporal affairs and prepare for 
quarterly communion. Besides these, they have a 
sort of judicial eldership, the members of which 
are called " ruling elders " whose duty it is to settle 
controversies. Discipline is theoretically rigid. 
Members of churches are not allowed to frequent 
the " race track, the card table, shooting matches, or 
any other place of disorder." In the administration 
of discipline it is provided that " no person of color 
within the pale of the church shall give testimony 
against any person " (except one) " of color." Pro- 
vision is made whereby only male members shall 
hold office in the church. Once a year a general 
conference is held for settlement of church difficul- 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 347 

ties, for the reception of new churches, and for the 
trial and discontinuance of elders, or pastors. This 
yearly conference is composed of all the pastors, or 
elders, ministers, (ordained) preachers, (licentiates) 
in good standing, and of delegates chosen by the 
churches. 

Besides the work already named, this annual con- 
ference alone has power to silence preachers. The 
churches of the Original Freewill Baptists are con- 
fined to North and South Carolina. In the former, 
there is a membership of ten thousand two hundred 
and twenty-four; in the latter, there is a member- 
ship of one thousand six hundred and forty. 

The General Baptists. — The name of this 
body is meant to imply its liberality in contradis- 
tinction from the Particular or Regular Baptists 
who are Calvinistic. The General Baptists are 
Arminian in creed. They have eliminated every 
vestige of Calvinism from their articles of faith. 

We find General Baptists in New England at the 
close of the seventeenth century. Near the begin- 
ning of the century following they organized them- 
selves into a General Association. A little later, we 
find them establishing churches in Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and the Carolinas. A marked revolution was 
effected in the last-named States by the visits of 
such missionaries as Gano, Van Horn, Miller, and 
others. Under the instruction of such men the 
most of them became Calvinistic in faith. 



348 APPENDIX A 

During the first quarter of the present century 
the drift of the General Baptists was toward the 
West, where they are now concentrated. The first 
Association of the General Baptists organized in the 
West was the Liberty, of Kentucky, in 1824. They 
adopted the practice of open communion in 1830, 
and fifteen years afterward so changed one of their 
articles of faith as to embrace idiots and infants in 
the covenant of grace. It seems that in the creed 
formulated at the constitution of the Liberty Asso- 
ciation, this specification had been omitted. In 
order to give more emphasis to the tone of Armin- 
ianism, another article was changed so as to declare 
that "he that shall endure to the end shall be 
saved " instead of saying, "the saints will finally 
persevere from grace to glory." The purpose of 
these changes evidently was to wipe out from the 
creed the last vestige of Calvinism. 

In 1870 they formed a General Association in 
which all the Associations of the general body are 
represented. The object of such organization is 
declared to be that of bringing " into more intimate 
and fraternal relation and effective co-operation 
various bodies of literal Baptists." 

So closely akin are the General and the Freewill 
Baptists that each readily receives into its com- 
munion and fellowship the churches of the other. 
The growth of the General Baptists, has within the 
last quarter of a century been rapid. In 1870 they 
numbered eight thousand; ten years later, twelve 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 349 

thousand three hundred and sixty-seven; and ten 
years later still, twenty-one thousand three hundred 
and sixty-two. 

They are scattered through the States of Indiana, 
Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, 
and Nebraska. One fails to discover but slight 
difference between the General Baptists and the 
Freewill Baptists from a comparison of the Con- 
fessions of Faith. They hold that the Bible is the 
only rule of faith and practice; that there is one 
God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; that man 
is "fallen and depraved," and is totally unable to 
save himself; that he that endures to the end shall 
be saved ; that reward and punishment are eternal ; 
that immersion alone is baptism ; that only believers 
are proper subjects of baptism ; that none can share 
in the benefits of the atonement, though made for 
all, except through repentance and faith, save idiots 
and infants only. 

In Kentucky the General Baptists have four 
thousand four hundred and fifty-five members ; in 
Tennessee, one thousand and eight members. 

The United Baptists. — This is a small body 
of communicants who retain the designation as- 
sumed when the Separate and Regular Baptists 
were united in Virginia, Kentucky, and elsewhere. 
But there was such general concession to the prin- 
ciples of the Regular Baptists, that the sections thus 
combined were eventually called Regular Baptists. 



350 APPENDIX A 

Later, they were additionally called Missionary 
Baptists to distinguish them from the Anti-mission- 
ary. Some have persisted in clinging to the name 
United Baptists and have preserved a continual ex- 
istence in that way. 

An additional reason for their independent exist- 
ence is found in the fact that in Kentucky the fu- 
sion of the Separates and Regulars was not upon a 
purely Calvinistic basis. While in their doctrinal 
platform they did declare the final perseverance of 
the saints, they did not distinctly set forth election 
or reprobation. However, the fusionists did stipu- 
late that the doctrine of a general atonement, as de- 
clared in the fact that " Christ did taste death for 
every man/' should be " no bar to communion." 

As a distinct denomination the United Baptists 
are moderate Calvinists. They hold that Christ 
" suffered and died to make atonement for sin," but 
do not say whether this atonement was general or 
particular. They further declare that though the 
gospel is to be preached to all nations, and men 
everywhere are to be urged to repentance, such is 
their opposition to the gospel that they deliberately 
and voluntarily choose a state of sin. 

They further insist that God in his " mere good 
pleasure" elected or chose in Christ a great mul- 
titude among all nations, and that through the 
operation of the Holy Spirit, God " effectually calls 
them " and they " freely choose Christ for their 
Saviour." They urge that those who are united to 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 351 

God by a living faith are forgiven and justified 
"solely on account of the merits of Christ," and 
that those who are justified and regenerated will 
persevere to the end. On the subject of baptism 
their views are in common with all other Baptists — 
immersion of believers only. Concerning the Lord's 
Supper they claim that it should be " observed by 
those who have been regenerated, regularly bap- 
tized, and become members of a gospel church." 
They also hold to the observance of washing the 
saints' feet. 

The United Baptists are found in Alabama, Ar- 
kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. There 
are in Alabama seven hundred and two members ; 
in Kentucky, six thousand four hundred and forty- 
three members ; and in Tennessee, three thousand 
one hundred and eighty members. 

The Baptist Church of Christ. — This is a 
small body, the majority of the members of which 
are to be found in Tennessee. The first two Asso- 
ciations of the Baptist Church of Christ were the 
Elk River and the Duck River, both of which were 
organized in Tennessee in 1808. They assert that 
they are the oldest body of Baptists, and that no 
others existed in Tennessee until 1825, "when the 
Two-Seed churches came into existence as the result 
of what is know as the Antinomian Controversy." 

The Articles of Faith of the Baptist Church of 
Christ are conservative in tone. They hold that 



352 APPENDIX A 

"Christ tasted death for every man," and so con- 
ditioned the means of grace as to make it possible 
for God to exercise mercy toward all who come unto 
him on the terms of the gospel ; that justification is 
by faith ; that saints will persevere. They agree 
with the entire Baptist brotherhood upon the sub- 
ject of immersion, and believer's baptism. They 
insist upon three ordinances — baptism, the Lord's 
Supper, and washing the feet of the saints. These 
are to be observed until the second coming of 
Christ. A few members of this body are to be met 
with in the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Missis- 
sippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and 
Texas. In Alabama there are seven hundred and 
eighty-two members ; in Mississippi, three hundred 
and sixty-eight members ; in North Carolina, six 
hundred and fifty-nine members ; and in Tennessee, 
five thousand and sixty-five members. 

The Anti-Mission Baptists. — This body of 
Baptists is known by a variety of names, such as 
"Primitive," "Old School," "Anti-Mission," and 
" Hard Shell." Their tenets are characterized by 
narrowness and rigidity. They owe their existence 
as a distinct body, to their pronounced opposition, 
begun more than fifty years ago, to missions, Sun- 
day-schools, Bible societies, and all similar institu- 
tions. They denounce them as human institutions, 
modern innovations, as unauthorized by the Scrip- 
tures, and unnecessary. 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 353 

The severance of the anti-effort Baptists from the 
missionary organizations was a gradual process. It 
found open expression in the Chemung Association, 
the churches of which were partly in New York 
and partly in Pennsylvania, as early as 1835. It 
adopted a resolution insisting that as associational 
bodies with which it had been in correspondence 
had " departed from the simplicity of the doctrine 
and practice of the gospel of Christ, uniting with 
the world and what are falsely called benevolent 
societies, founded upon a monied basis," and en- 
gaged in preaching a gospel "differing from the 
gospel of Christ," it declined further fellowship 
with them. It followed up this declaration with an 
earnest appeal to all Baptists who did not approve 
these innovations to withdraw from those hold- 
ing them. A year later this was followed by a 
similar protest from the Baltimore Association of 
Maryland. 

Set over against these deliverances was a declara- 
tion from the Warwick Association, New York, in 
1840. By this time the battle was waxing hot, as 
the tenor of the Warwick declaration shows. Ex- 
pressing itself in a circular letter, the Warwick 
Association, in opposition to the Anti-missionary 
element, charges them with entertaining hyper- 
Calvinistic doctrines, and insists that such views of 
predestination as they held practically relieved man 
of any responsibility for his conduct or condition. 
It charges upon them that they insist that God ex- 



354 APPENDIX A 

ecutes his plans " without the least instrumentality 
whatever," and that " all the preaching from John 
the Baptist until now, if made to bear on one unre- 
generated sinner" could not "quicken his poor, 
dead soul." 

What was taking place in the East at this time 
was also taking place in the West and South. The 
separation was finally brought about by the with- 
drawal of the Anti-mission elements of the denom- 
ination. No objection exists on the part of the 
Anti-mission forces to the preaching of the gospel, 
but they stoutly hold that God will convert the 
world in his own way, and in his own good time, 
independent of human agency. 

It has been popularly supposed that the inaction 
which such views necessarily engender, is leading 
to a gradual extinction of this people. This is 
corroborated by the fact that the masses of the 
Anti-mission Baptists being illiterate, attach no 
importance to denominational statistics. But the 
supposition of their gradual disappearance is erro- 
neous. They are endowed with amazing vitality. 
We are indebted to the national census for the in- 
formation, which we possibly would not otherwise 
have, concerning this peculiar people. In his ad- 
mirable work, "The Keligious Forces of the United 
States," in the American Church History Series, 
Dr. H. K. Carroll conclusively shows that if past 
statistics concerning this people are correct, the 
census of 1890 exhibits a remarkable increase. 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 355 

In their Articles of Faith the Anti-mission Bap- 
tists declare that by the fall of Adam- " all his pos- 
terity become sinners in the sight of God"; that 
the "corruption of human nature" prevents man 
by the exercise of his own will and ability from re- 
instating "'himself in the favor of God" ; that "God 
elected, or chose, his people in Christ before the 
foundation of the world"; "that sinners are justi- 
fied only by the righteousness of Christ imparted to 
them " ; that the saints will finally persevere and 
"not one of them will ever be finally lost"; that 
baptism, the Lord's Supper, and washing the saints' 
feet, are ordinances of the gospel, and should be con- 
tinued until Christ's second coming ; that " the in- 
stitutions of the day are works of man" ; and that it 
is " wrong to join them." They further insist that 
no fellowship should be had with churches which 
favor these human agencies. Indeed an article of 
the constitution declines fellowship with any church 
or churches which support any " missionary, Bible, 
tract, or Sunday-school union society, or advocates 
State Conventions, or theological schools," or " any 
other society formed under the pretense of circu- 
lating the gospel of Christ." 

As may be readily judged from the foregoing, the 
Anti-mission Baptists have no State Conventions or 
theological seminaries. They vehemently oppose the 
preparation of their ministry for more effectively 
preaching the gospel. They are one with all Bap- 
tists respecting immersion and the precedence of 



356 APPENDIX A 

faith to baptism, and that this is a prerequisite to 
the Lord's Supper. They further contend that no 
minister has authority to administer the ordinances 
unless he has been " called of God," " come under 
the imposition of hands by a presbytery," and is 
"in fellowship with the church of which he is a 
member." 

The denomination is distributed through twenty- 
eight States. It is strongest in Georgia, Alabama, 
Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky. It has 
disappeared from almost every Northern State 
except Indiana and Illinois. The denomination 
aggregates one hundred and twenty-one thousand 
three hundred and forty-seven. 1 

The Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian 
Baptists. — This is the most peculiar and distinctive 
of all the bodies called Baptist. They hold no fel- 
lowship with any other body of that name. They 
entertain the most extreme views upon the subject 
of Calvinism, giving great emphasis to the doctrine 
of predestination, as their name indicates. Their 
conception of good and evil is expressed by the 

1 Of the Anti-mission Baptists there are in Alabama a mem- 
bership of 14,903 ; in the District of Columbia, a membership of 
34 ; in Florida, a membership of 1,997 ; in Georgia, a member- 
ship of 18,535 ; in Kentucky, a membership of 10,665 ; in Mary- 
land, a membership of 373 ; in Mississippi, a membership of 
3,259; in North Carolina, a membership of 11,740; in South Car- 
olina, a membership of 531 ; in Tennessee, a membership of 13,- 
• 972; in Virginia, a membership of 9,950; in West Virginia, a 
membership of 2,777. 






OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 357 

phrase a Two seed." One of these represents good, 
and the other, evil. Daniel Parker, of Virginia, 
is regarded the founder of this branch. In 1826 
he published a pamphlet in which were embodied 
the doctrines of this denomination. In 1829 an- 
other pamphlet appeared from his pen, entitled 
" Second Dose of the Doctrine of Two Seeds." 

The following is supposed to embody the views 
held by the Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predesti- 
narian Baptists. 

The essence of good is God ; the essence of evil is the 
devil. Good angels are emanations from, or particles 
of, God ; evil angels are particles of the devil. When 
God created Adam and Eve, they were endowed with an 
emanation from himself, or particles of God were in- 
cluded in their constitution. They were wholly good. 
Satan, however, infused into them particles of his es- 
sence, by which they were corrupted. In the beginning, 
God had appointed that Eve should bring forth only a 
certain number of offspring ; the same provision applied 
to each of her daughters. But when the particles of 
evil essence had been infused by Satan, the conception 
of Eve and her daughters was increased. They were 
now required to bear the original number, who were 
styled the seed of God, and an additional number who 
were called the seed of the serpent. The seed of God 
constituted a part of the body of Christ. For them the 
atonement was absolute ; they would all be saved. The 
seed of the serpent did not partake of the benefits of 
the atonement and would all be lost. All the manifesta- 
tions of good or evil in men are but displays of the es- 
sence that had been infused into them . The Christian 
warfare is a conflict between these essences. 



358 APPENDIX A 

This body is known by other names than the one 
already given. Some of the representatives call 
themselves " Regular," others are called " Regular 
Predestinarian," still others designate themselves, 
" Regular Two-Seed Predestiuarian Primitive Bap- 
tists." The Articles of Faith held by these dif- 
ferent divisions vary somewhat. One set de- 
clares that God is the Creator of all things and 
governs all things in righteousness ; that man was 
created holy, but by reason of sin fell, and became 
corrupted, from which corruption he was unable to 
recover himself; that the elect were chosen in 
Christ before the world began, and "appointed to 
faith and obedience in love " by the Spirit of God 
because of the " righteousness, life, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension" of Christ; that God's elect 
will, in due time, be effectually called and regener- 
ated, the righteousness of God being imputed to 
them ; that they will never finally fall away ; that 
good works are the fruits of faith and grace in the 
heart, and follow regeneration ; that ministers 
should receive "legal authority" through the im- 
position of hands of the presbytery acting for a 
gospel church, and should be subject to the disci- 
pline of the church ; that the " eternal work of the 
Holy Spirit" is manifested externally as well as in- 
ternally, in experimental religion and the call to 
the ministry, and the true church should distinguish 
itself from all " false sects " and have no fellowship 
with them ; that the church is a spiritual kingdom 



OTHER BAPTIST FAMILIES 359 

which men in a state of nature cannot see, and it 
should therefore receive as members only those who 
have hope in Christ and experimental knowledge 
of salvation ; that the ceremony of footwashing 
ought to be observed, and that the joys of the 
righteous and the punishment of the wicked will 
be endless. 

We have said that the Two-Seed Predestinarian 
Baptists are unlike all others. They seem more 
nearly to approximate the Anti-mission Baptists in 
the doctrine of predestination, and yet they differ 
from them in that which seems to bring them more 
nearly together. 

The Two-Seed Predestinarian Baptists hold that 
God predestined all his children to eternal life, and 
the- devil and all his spiritual children to the eternal 
kingdom of darkness ; that he foreordained all 
events whatever, from the creation to the consum- 
mation of all things, not suffering, in his infinite 
wisdom and perfect knowledge anything to occur to 
change his plans. The Anti-mission Baptists do 
not go so far. They hold that while God predesti- 
nated some to eternal life, his predestination did 
not extend absolutely to all things, for this doctrine 
would, they insist, blasphemously impute to the 
Almighty the existence of evil and do away with 
sin and human accountability. Among the claims 
of the Old Two-Seed Baptists is that of including 
Waldo, Calvin, Bunyan, Wycliffe, and Knox as 
" elders" who held the views of the Two-seed 



360 APPENDIX A 

doctrine. They regard Arminius as a perverter 
and corrupter of the faith. Generally the Two- 
seed Baptists are opposed to a salaried ministry. 
Their interpretation of the all-sufficiency of Christ 
is that human agency is not needed to effect the re- 
demption of men. They are purely antinomian in 
belief. Their idea of the function of the ministry 
is that of comforting Zion, feeding the flock, and 
contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to 
the saints. 

They agree fully with the Anti-mission Baptists 
in their opposition to " modern institutions," by 
which are meant Sunday-schools, theological semi- 
naries, Bible societies, missionary Boards, as well as 
missionary endeavor. They are scattered through 
twenty-four States of the Union, but are strongest 
in the South. The States in which they are most 
numerous are Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missis- 
sippi, and Arkansas. 1 

1 In the States represented in the group, the history of which 
is considered in this volume, they are numbered as follows: 
Alabama has 538 members ; Florida, 39 members ; Georgia, 330 
members ; Kentucky, 2,401 members ; Mississippi, 840 members ; 
North Carolina, 183 members ; Tennessee, 1,270 members ; Vir- 
ginia, 142 members ; and West Virginia, 806 members. 



APPENDIX B 



INSTITUTIONS FOR WOMEN AND VALUE OF 
PROPERTIES 

VIRGINIA. 

Hollins Institute, founded in 1842; located at Botetourt 
Springs ; Charles L. Cocke, a. m., president; value of property, 
$150,000 ; value of library and apparatus, $2,500. 

Roanoke Female College, founded 1859 ; located at Danville ; 
C. F. James, d. d., president; value of property, $25,000; value 
of library and apparatus, $1,500 ; number of volumes in library, 
1,000. 

Southside Female Institute, founded 1888 ; located at Burke- 
ville ; Rev. R. W. Cridlin, president; value of property, $15,000 ; 
value of library and apparatus, $2,000 ; number of volumes in 
library, 1,200. 

Southwest Virginia Institute, founded 1884 ; located at Bristol ; 
Samuel D. Jones, b. l., president; value of property, $150,000; 
amount of endowment, $7,500 ; value of library and apparatus, 
$1,000 ; number of volumes in library, 712. 

Woman's College, founded 1854 ; located at Richmond ; value 
of property, $65,000 ; number of volumes in library, 400. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Chowan Female Institute, founded 1848 ; located at Murfrees- 
boro ; value of property, $50,000. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Cooper-Limestone Institute, founded 1880 ; located at Gaffney 
City; H. P. Griffith, president; value of property, $50,000; 
value of library and apparatus, $2,000 ; number of volumes in 
library, 250. 

Greenville Female College, founded 1854 ; located at Green- 
ville; Rev. M. M. Riley, d. d., president; value of property, 
$20,000 ; value of library and apparatus, $500. 

361 



362 APPENDIX B 



Monroe Female College, founded 1840 ; located at Forsyth ; 
value of property, $15,000 ; value of library and apparatus, $500. 

Shorter College, founded 1880 ; located at Eome ; A. J. Battle, 
d. d., ll. d., president; value of property, $130,000; amount of 
endowment, $45,000 ; value of library and apparatus, $3,000 ; 
number of volumes in library, 1,500. 

Southern Female College, founded 1843 ; located at La Grange ; 
G. A. Nunnelly, d. d., president. This school has been located 
in the town of La Grange for fifty -two years. For many years 
it was conducted by Prof. I. F. Cox, a. m., who had control of the 
institution from 1857 to 1887, at which date he died. He was 
worthily succeeded by his son, Prof. C. C. Cox, who conducted 
the school with signal success until 1895, when he removed with 
his faculty and outfit to the handsome college building at College 
Park, near Atlanta. The new institution is known as Cox College. 
It is a magnificent structure and handsomely equipped. 

KENTUCKY. 

Bethel Female College, founded 1854 ; located at Hopkinsville ; 
Rev. T. S. McCall, a. m., president; value of property, $30,000; 
value of library and apparatus, $1,000 ; number of volumes in 
library, 1,000. 

TENNESSEE. 

Boscobel, founded 1889 ; located at Nashville ; J. G. Patey, a. b., 
president ; value of property, $75,000 ; value of library and ap- 
paratus, $1,500; number of volumes in library, 1,000. 

Brownsville Female College, founded 1851 ; located at Browns- 
ville; value of property, $20,000; value of library and appa- 
ratus, $500. 

Sweetwater Seminary, founded 1886 ; located at Sweetwater ; 
William Shelton d. d., ll. d., president; value of property, 
$20,000 ; value of library and apparatus, $2,000 ; number of vol- 
umes in library, 500. 

ALABAMA. 

Judson Institute, founded 1839 ; located at Marion ; S. W. 
Averett, ll. d., president ; value of property, $61,000 ; amount of 
endowment, $540 ; value of library and apparatus, $20,000 : 
number of volumes in library, 1,400. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Blue Mountain Female College, founded 1873 ; located at Blue 
Mountain; W. T. Lowry, d. d., president; value of property, 



INSTITUTIONS FOR WOMEN 363 

$25,000 ; value of library and apparatus, $5,000 ; number of vol- 
umes in library, 1,500. 

Hillman College, founded 1853 ; located at Clinton ; Walter 
Hillman, d. d., president; value of property, $30,000; value of 
library and apparatus, $3,000 ; total value of property, $33,000. 

In addition to these, there are many schools of a minor grade 
such as academies, institutes, and seminaries under the care of 
the denominational local bodies in all the States of the South. 



INDEX 



Alabama : first Baptist settlements 
in, 46 ; first church organized in, 
47 ; denominational education 
in, 155; Judson Inst., in, 362; 
anti-missionary spirit in, 70, 195 ; 
evangelistic effort in, 196 ; Con- 
vention organized, 196 ; early 
leaders, 196; " Resolutions," 203, 
204; deliverance upon slavery, 
205; "Resolutions" discussed, 
206, 207. 

Alamance, germ of Revolution, 80. 

Alexandria, Va., 163. 

Anti-missionary Baptists : their, 
spirit, 168 ; factious opposition 
of, 169, 170 ; assumptions among, 
169; prevalence of, accounted 
for, 172; unprogressiveness of, 
173. 

Anti-mission Baptists, The, 352-356. 

"Apostolic succession," views on, 
held, 177. 

Arminianism : Churches infected 
with, 19 ; prevalence of, in Ken- 
tucky, 37; advocates of, cause 
trouble, 127. 

Asplund's Register, 39. 

Ashley River, 14. 

Association : Baltimore, consti- 
tuted, 189 ; anti-mission ism of, 
189; Charleston, raises an edu- 
cational fund, 135; Concord, 
Tenn., formed, 121 ; Cumberland, 
formed, 121; Edgefield, men- 
tioned, 138 ; Elk River, formed, 
121 ; Georgia, 124 ; Green Brier, 
49 ; Hepzibah, Ga., 124 ; Holston, 
Tenn., formed, 39, 119; Mero, 



112; Philadelphia, 17, 19; Red 
River, Tenn., formed, 121 ; Sandy 
Creek, N. C, 39, 85 ; Sarepta, Ga., 
124, 144 ; Savannah River, 138. 

Averett, S. W., ll. d., 362. 

Axtell, Lady, 10. 

Bailey, Prof. W. E., 140. 

Baltimore, First Church of, or- 
ganized, 21. 

Baptists: General laxness of, in 
North Carolina, 24, 161 ; churches 
of, few in number, 110 ; heroism 
and influence of their ministry, 
110, 127 ; uneducated ministry 
among, 131 ; better equipment 
provided for, 133 ; Particular, 
165, 166 ; found most in rural dis- 
tricts, 222 ; rivalry between, and 
Methodists, 266; robust culture 
of, 268 ; Anti-Missionary, opposed 
to Sunday-schools, 270 ; in North 
Carolina advocating Sunday- 
schools, 271 ; entering Louisiana, 
44; of Mississippi reporting on, 
271, 272; attitude of, in Ken- 
tucky toward Sunday-schools, 
273, 274 ; denouncing undenomi- 
national literature, 274, 275 ; ad- 
dress to, concerning Sunday- 
school Board, 278 ; chief jour- 
nals of, 285-293; colored, 310- 
328 ; principles advocated by, 
now fundamental law, 329 ; 
growth of, 330; missionary spirit 
among, 330; illiteracy among, 
331 ; institutions of learning 
among, 331, 332 ; appreciating 
365 



366 



INDEX 



press, 332; elements of success 
among, 332; chief source of 
strength among, 332, 333; dan- 
gers to be encountered by, 333- 
336; the future of, 334; the 
story of, 335 ; counsel for, 336 ; 
The Seventh Day, 338-340; The 
Free Will, 340-345 ; The Original 
Free Will, 345-347 ; The General, 
347-349; The United, 349-351; 
The Anti-Mission, 352-356; The 
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predesti- 
narian, 356-360. 

Baptists, The Colored : beginning 
of their history, 312, 313 ; work 
of Bryan among, 313, 314 ; Lot 
Cary one of the most notable of, 
315, 316 ; numerical increase of, 
317, 318 ; churches of, having 
white pastors, 319 ; representa- 
tives of, sent as missionaries by 
Southern Convention, 321 ; sta- 
tistics of, 321, 322 ; withdrawing 
from whites, 323 ; commendable 
progress of, 323; organization 
of Convention among, 324, 325 ; 
scholars among, 324, 325 ; schools 
possessed by, 325, 326; periodi- 
cals owned by, 327 ; meetings 
among, 327, 328; great number 
of, 328. 

Baptist Church of Christ, The, 351, 
352. 

Baptist : The Tennessee, 288 ; The 
Southern, 289. 

Battle, Dr. Cullen, liberality of, 
145. 

Bestor, D. P., Dr. : mentioned, 155 ; 
declines secretaryship of Domes. 
Miss. Board, 223. 

Blair. Hon. Jno., letter from, 60, 61. 

Blake, Humphrey, 9, 13. 

Blake, Joseph, 10, 68. 

Board of Domestic Missions: lo- 
cated at Marion, Ala., 219; diffi- 
culties of, 220; removal of, to 



Atlanta, 224; zeal and activity 
of, 224-226: assumes care of 
work among Indians, 225 ; work 
of, depressed, 226, 227 ; work of. 
among Southern armies, 225, 226 ; 
its distinguished evangelists, 
226 ; agency of, in creating State 
Boards, 226 ; name of, changed, 
226 ; Cuba included in its work, 
229 ; buys Havana theatre, 229. 

Board, Bible, organized, 239. 

Board, Foreign Mission : located 
at Richmond, 219; dependence 
of, on Board of Domestic Mis- 
sions, 221 ; mission journal estab- 
lished by, 230; difficulties en- 
countered by, 230, 231 ; mission- 
aries sent by, 231, 233 ; points oc- 
cupied by, 231, 232 ; stations es- 
tablished by, up to 1863, 233; 
operations of, hindered by 
cholera, 234; enlargement for, 
234 ; most fruitful department of, 
236 ; journal issued by, 292. 

Boards, Southern Convention : 
men chosen as officials of, 223 ; 
contributions to, 224; new 
churches established by, 225 ; 
contributions of Sunday-school 
Board to, 240. 

Board, Sunday-school : organized 
and revived, 239 ; headquarters 
of, 240 ; contributions of, to other 
Boards, 240; literature of, 240; 
receipts of, 240; made Sunday- 
school and Publication Board, 
278; employing Dr. Broadus as 
secretary, 278 ; crippled by war, 
279; literature issued by, 279; 
Bibles to, from American Bible 
Society, 280 ; active missionaries 
of, 280 ; cessation and resumption 
of work by, 281 ; its wrestle for 
life, 282 ; Dr. Bitting appointed 
secretary 7 of, 282 ; removed from 
Greenville, 283; help to, from" 



INDEX 



367 



American Baptist Publication 
Society, 283 ; merged in Domestic 
Mission Board, 284. 

Boone, Daniel, 33. 

Boston, first church of, 12. 

Bostwick, J. A., gifts of, 148. 

Botsford, Rev. E. : mentioned, 29 ; 
work of, in Georgia, 122, 135. 

Boyce, Dr. J. P. : originating plan 
for theological seminary, 246; 
executive skill of, 248; guiding 
hand of, 251 ; chaplain in Con- 
federate army, 253; devising 
plans for seminary buildings, 
259; struggles of, for seminary, 
260-262 ; death of, 262 ; career 
and character of, 263. 

Brantley, W. T., Sr., 143. 

Brazil : effort to found mission in, 
232 : mission abandoned and re- 
sumed, 236. 

Broaddus, Rev. Andrew, declines 
call to city churches, 222. 

Broaddus, Rev. W. F., 149, 162. 

Broad us, Dr. John A. : writing 
from Rome, 235; one of com- 
mittee on theological seminary, 
249 ; one of the professors in 
theological seminary, 252; em- 
ployment of, during war, 253; 
.giving instruction to one stu- 
dent, 255 ; going North for semi- 
nary, 259; becoming president 
of the seminary, 263 ; death of, 
264. 

Bryan, Rev. Andrew, 313, 314. 

Burma, 161. 

Calvinistic Methodists, 166. 

Campbell, Alex. : opposes mis- 
sions, 174; edits the "Christian 
Baptist," 174; begins a notable 
career, 174 ; shrewd debater, 174 ; 
conditions favoring his advent, 
175 ; forms a new sect, 175 ; dis- 
rupts churches, 175, 176 ; follow- 



ers of, called " Disciples " and 
Campbellites, 175, 176 ; character 
of his followers, 176 ; contributes 
to anti-pedobaptism and immer- 
sion, 177 ; distraction occasioned 
by, 188. 
Camp-meeting, early, described, 

118. 
Cardross, Lord, 13. 
Carroll, Dr. H. K., 110. 
Carson, Hon. J. H., 154. 
Cary, Rev. Lot, 315-317. 
Chaplin, Prof. Jere, Jr., 141. 
Chapman, Wm., 12. 
Charleston : First Church in, 11 ; 
population of, in 1700, 13 ; serious 
blunder of Baptists in, 67, 
Chenault, Mr. D. A., bequeath- 
ing fifteen thousand dollars to 
Southern Seminary, 262. 
China : missionaries appointed 
to, 231 ; dismal period for mis- 
sion in, 234 ; mission in, hindered 
by war, 234. 
"Christian Index," 144. 
Churches : Baton Rouge, La., 45 ; 
Buckhead Creek, Ga., 123 ; Ce- 
dar Creek, Ky., 35 ; Chestnut 
Ridge, Md., 21 ; Chowan River, 
N. C, 23; Coliseum Place, La., 
46; Euhaw, S. C, 29; Pensa- 
cola, Fla., 49 ; Gilbert's Creek, 
Ky., 35 ; Green Brier, W. Va., 49 ; 
Gunpowder, Md., 21 ; Harford, 
Md., 21 ; High Hills of Santee, 
S. C, 136; Ketocton, Va., 17; 
Kiokee. Ga., 32 ; Meherrin, N. C, 
25; Mill Creek, Va., 17; Mill 
Swamp, Va., 16; Opecon, Va., 
17; Otterdams, Va., 16; Sandy 
Creek, N. C, 84; Sandy Run, 
N. C, 25; Saters, Md., 16; Sev- 
ern's Valley, Ky., 35 ; Simpson's 
Creek, W. Va., 49 ; Sulphur Fork 
River, Tenn., 120; Taneytown, 
Md., 21 ; Tuckaseeking, Ga., 29 ; 



368 



INDEX 



Welsh Tract. Pa., 23; Winter 
Run, Md., 21. 

" Civil grievances," committee on, 
94. 

Civil War : interfering with mis- 
sion work, 233 ; causing suspen- 
sion of theological seminary, 
253. 

Cocke, C. L., A. M., 361. 

Clopton, Rev. S. C, foreign mis- 
sionary, 217. 

Colleges, denominational : germ 
of, 134; Bethel, Ky., founded, 
and presidents of, 153 ; Carson- 
Newman, 154; Columbian, 144, 
148, 161-163; Georgetown, Ky., 
152, 153, 1,54 ; Howard, 155, 156 ; 
Keachi, La., 160; Mercer Uni- 
versity, 146 ; Mississippi, 157 ; 
Rhode Island, 135; Richmond, 
151 ; J. B. Stetson University, 
161 ; Wake Forest, 148. 

Committee of correspondence, or- 
ganized, 188. 

Comer, Jno., 24. 

Comstock, Hon. O. C, leaves Con- 
gress for ministry, 191. 

Cone, Rev. Spencer H. : abandons 
the stage, 190 ; position of, on 
slavery, 201. 

" Constitution of Virginia," 88. 

Convention, Southern Baptist: oc- 
casion of its formation, 199 ; con- 
servative element in, 210 ; or- 
ganized, 210 ; first resolution in, 
211 ; addresses Baptists of the 
Union, 211 ; charges made by, 
212; its Boards, 214; difficulties 
of, 215 ; meets in Richmond, 216 ; 
devotional spirit of, 217 ; pro- 
posed operations of, on Pacific 
coast, 218; efforts of, to Chris- 
tianize slaves, 218 ; outline of its 
proposed work, 220 ; territory of, 
221; conditions affecting. 222; 
deliberate in choice of officials, 



223 ; zeal and ability in affairs 
of, 224 ; missionaries of, entering 
Mexico, 236 ; Bible and Sunday- 
school Boards organized by, 239 ; 
claims of theological seminary 
advocated before, 244 ; subscrip- 
tions at, for seminary, 256 ; Sun- 
day-schools claiming attention 
of, 276; committee of, to con- 
sider Sunday-schools, 277 ; con- 
sidering women's work, 302 ; at- 
titude of, toward women repre- 
sentatives, 305; women's work 
recognized by, 306 ; Negro mis- 
sionaries commissioned by, 321. 

Cooper River, 9, 10. 

Corcoran, Hon. W. W., 163. 

Cornwallis, Lord, 93. 

Cote, Dr. W. N., pioneer mission- 
ary to Italy, 234. 

"Council of Safety," 92. 

Cox, C. C, 362. 

Cruelties to Baptists, 55. 

Curtis, R., Sr., 41. 

Cuba, Diaz sent as missionary to, 
22$. 

Declaration of principles, 87. 

Desecration of Baptist churches, 
97. 

Determination of Baptists, 86. 

Diaz, Rev. A. J. : adventure and 
conversion of, 228, 229 ; sent as 
missionary to Cuba, 228 ; arrest 
and imprisonment of, 229. 

District of Columbia, first church 
in, 49. 

Dobbs, Gov., 82. 

Doctrine, laxness of North Caro- 
lina in, 25. 

Dorris, Eld., removes from North 
Carolina to Tennessee, 120. 

Dudley, Rev. Ambrose : conse- 
crated missionary, 40; in Ten- 
nessee, 120. 

Duke of York, 9. 



INDEX 



371 



Manly, Basil, Jr., interested in 
Sunday-school work, 277. 

Marion, Ala., 156. 

Marshall, Rev. Daniel : becomes a 

' Baptist, 17; leadership of, in 
North Carolina, 26 ; arrested, 30, 
31 ; work of, during Revolution, 
122, 123 ; an organizer, 123 ; died, 
125. 

Marshall, Rev. Abraham : allusion 
to, 122, 125 ; chairman of the gen- 
eral committee, 182; blunder of, 
183. 

Marshall, John, opposition of, to 
Baptists, 101. 

Maryland : missionaries from, to 
Virginia, 16; freedom from per- 
secution in, 20; numerical 
strength of Baptists in, 189; 
Baptist Union Association or- 
ganized in, 190. 

Mason, George, aids Baptists, 101. 

McCianahan, Eld., patriotism of, 
91. 

McGready, Rev. Jas., 113. 

Mcintosh, Dr. W. H., 224. 

Memorial and remonstrance, 101. 

Mercer, Rev. S. : allusion to, 122 ; 
character of, 125. 

Mercer, Jesse: influence of, 142, 
146 ; leadership of, 143, 144 ; was 
chief founder of denominational 
work in Georgia, 182 ; a prime 
mover in the Powelton confer- 
ence, 182. 

Meredith, Rev. Thos. : able advo- 
cacy of education by, 186. 

Methodists : alliance of, with Epis- 
copalians, 94 ; zeal of their min- 

. istry, 130. 

Mexico: contemplated as a field 
for missions, 220 ; establishment 
of mission in, 236; names of 
missionaries in, 237 ; mission 
work in, 238. 

Miller, Benj., 19. 



Ministers : Anderson, John, 49 ; 
Anthony, Joseph, 62; Bedge- 
wood, N., 28 ; Brooks, I. L., 143 ; 
Brown, O. B., 49; Campbell, J. 
H., 144; Canterbury, Jno., 47; 
Cartlege, Samuel, 31; Chapin, 
Dr. S., 162; Childs, Jas., 59; 
Compere, Lee, 184; Courtney, 
Jas., 47; Courtney, E., 45; 
Craig, Lewis, 59; Cridlin, R. W., 
361 ; Curtis, Richard, Jr., 41 ; 
Davidson, Dr. A. C, 153 ; Davis, 
Jno., 21 ; DeVotie, Dr. J. H., 155 ; 
Egan, Dr. B., 158 ; Eaton, Dr. J. 
H., 154; Gerrard, Jno., 35; Gid- 
dings, Rockwood, 152; Harriss, 
Samuel, 56 ; Hays, Edmund, 16 ; 
Healy, Jno., 21 ; Hickman, Wm., 
34 ; Hillman, Dr., 157 ; Hillman, 
W., 363; Holcombe, Hosea, 155; 
Holman, R., 46 ; Ireland, James, 
65; James, C. F., 361; Keel, 
James, 40 ; Kerr, Jno., 149 ; Kil- 
patrick, J. H. T., 143; Lane, 
Tidance, 40 ; Lowry, W. T., 362 ; 
Lynn, Benj., 37; Malcolm, Dr., 
152; Marshall, Wm., 37; Mar- 
shall, J. P., 143; McCall, T. S., 
362 ; McGraw, A. G., 155 ; McGee, 

Jos., 47 ; Mott, , 40 ; Murphey, 

Wm., 40; Murrell, Thos., 40; 
Nicholson, Jno., 47; Nordin, 
Robt., 16; Nunnelly, Dr. G. A., 
362; Palmer, Wait, 18; Parker, 
Jos., 25; Parker, Z., 47; Parker, 
Jacob, 47; Parkinson, William, 
49 ; Peartt, Wm., 14 ; Pugh, Evan, 
135 ; Purifoy, J. S., 148 ; Ranold- 
son, J. A., 45; Reno, Wm., 40; 
Richards, Lewis, 21; Riley, M. 
M., Dr"., 361; Ripley, H. J., 143; 
Ryland, W. S., Dr., 153; Sater, 
Henry, 20 ; Scott, Alex., 33 ; 
Shelton, Wm., 362; Skaggs, Jas., 
37 ; Smith, G. S., 34 ; Stillman, 
Samuel, 135; Stirk, Benj., 28; 



372 



INDEX 



Talbott, , 40; Thomas, , 

133 ; Thompson, Solomon, 33 ; 
Tilley, Wm, 14 ; Tomkies, C. W., 
160 ; Walker, Sanders, 33 ; Wal- 
ler, Jno., 59; Ware, Robt., 58; 

Webber, Wm., 62; White, , 

12 ; White, Thos., 16 ; Whitaker, 
Jno., 37; Williams, Jno., 136; 
Williams, Robt., 24 ; Yates, 
Thomas, 16; Reynolds, J. L., 
223, 226 ; Bestor, D. P., 223 ; Hol- 
man, R., 223, 226, 276 ; Walker, 
Joseph, 223 ; Sumner, M. T M 223 ; 
Mcintosh, W. H.,224; Tichenor, 
I. T., 224, 226, 229, 277 ; Diaz, A. J., 
228, 229; Frost, Dr. J. M., 240; 
Bell, Dr. T. P., 240; Boyce, Dr. J. 
P., 243, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251- 
253, 262 ; Williams, Dr. J. W. M., 

243, 302, 303 ; Clopton, S. C, 243 ; 
Tupper, H. A., 243, 302; Wink- 
ler, E. T., 243, 249, 277; Manly, 
Dr. Basil, Jr., 243, 244, 249, 277, 
278, 279; Jeter, Rev. J. B., 243, 

244, 245, 249; Johnson, Rev. W. 
B., 243, 244 ; Howell, Dr. R. C. B., 
244; Ryland, Robert, 244, 311; 
Poindexter, Dr. A. M., 244, 245 ; 
Manly, Dr. Basil, Sr., 245, 249; 
Broadus, Dr. John A., 249, 250, 
252, 253, 263, 264, 282 ; Whitsitt, Dr. 
W. H., 264 ; Vaughn, Dr. William, 
273 ; Bitting, Dr. C. C, 282; Grif- 
fith, Dr. Benjamin, 283; Ford, 
Dr. S. H., 283 ; Teasdale, Dr. T. 
C 283; Graves, Dr. J. R., 288, 
289 ; McDonald, Dr. Henry, 295 ; 
Tucker, Dr. H. H., 295; Jones, 
Dr. J. William, 304 ; Bryan, 
Andrew, 313-315. 

Ministry, The : desire for a better 
qualified, 241 ; colleges founded 
for, 242 ; theological course pro- 
vided for, 242: candidates for, 
going North, 242; necessity of a 
separate institution to train, 243. 



Missionaries: Shuck, Rev. J. L., 
230; Roberts, Rev. I. J., 230; 
twenty-two sent to China, 231 ; 
sixteen sent to Yoruba, Africa, 
232 ; Cote, Rev. W. N., 234 ; Tay- 
lor, Dr. Geo. B., 235 ; Eager, Dr. 
J. H., 235, 236; sent to Brazil, 
236; sent to Mexico, 236, 237; 
Rice, Luther, 242, 286 ; Judson, 
Adoniram, 242; Cary, Lot, 315- 
317 ; six, sent to Africa, 324 ; ap- 
pointed to different stations, 231, 
232, 233; names of, in Mexico, 
237 ; of Sunday-school Board, 280 ; 
colored, sent to Africa, 321, 324. 

Missionaries, zeal of local, 169. 

Missions : conflicts of, with educa- 
tion, 161 ; zeal of early Baptists 
in, 179 ; folly of objections to, 
180; fostered before conversion 
of Judson and Rice, 181 ; early, 
184 ; opposed by commercialism, 
197, 198. 

Mississippi : Baptists settle in, 40 ; 
struggles of Baptists in, 42 ; per- 
secutions in, 77-79 ; progress of, 
126; steps to found school in, 
156; Academy, 156; schools for 
girls, 362, 363 ; Convention or- 
ganized, 196. 

Moore, Rev. M., 123. 

Negroes, The : relation of slavery 
to, 310-312; not savage when 
liberation came, 311 ; work of 
Bryan and Cary among, 313- 
317 : plantation services among, 
320; laws against instruction of , 
320; amusements and meetings 
among, 327, 328. 

New England, compared with Vir- 
ginia, 113. 

"New Lights," 17. 

New Orleans, battle of, 121. 

New York, compared with Vir- 
ginia, 113. 



INDEX 



373 



North Carolina: first Baptists in, 
22 ; condition of, described, 72 ; 
persecutions in, 74, 75 ; revivals 
in, 113; increase of members, 
113 ; educational movement in, 
147 ; schools for girls, 361 ; pecu- 
liar conditions in, 185 ; Baptist 
Benevolent Society in, 185 ; Con- 
vention organized, 186 ; minis- 
terial education and missions in, 
186. 

Norton, Mr. W. F., contributing 
ten thousand dollars to Southern 
seminary, 258, 261, 262. 

Northern benefactions, 152. 

Officiation at marriages allowed, 
99. 

Oglethorpe, James, 26. 

Original Free Will Baptists, The, 
345-347. 

Organization : slow and tedious, 
223 ; of Bible Board, 239 ; of Sun- 
day-school Board, 239 ; of first 
Sunday-school, 269; of Sunday- 
school Union, 271; of Baptist 
women, 299 ; of Woman's Mis- 
sion to Woman, 301 ; of woman's 
movement, 307; of American 
National Baptist Convention, 
324 ; other Baptist families, 337. 

Palmer, Paul ; from Pennsylvania, 
antecedents unknown, 166 ; het- 
erodox influence of, 166. 

Parker, Daniel : apostle of opposi- 
tion, 172; work in Kentucky, 
194. 

Patey, J. G., 362. 

Pearcy, Rev. George, foreign mis- 
sionary, 217. 

Peck, Dr. J. M., reference to Ken- 
tucky Baptists, 192. 

Pelot, Rev. Francis: allusion to, 
122 ; wealth of, 134. 

Pendleton, Dr. J. M. : a professor 



in Union University, 154; a 
founder of Old Landmarkism, 
177. 

Penfield, Josiah, bequest of, 145. 

Persecution : mentioned, 52, 63 ; 
results from, 127. 

Petitions, immensity of, 98. 

Piscataqua River, 11. 

Poindexter, Dr. A. M., 162. 

Powelton, Ga., Convention organ- 
ized at, 145. 

Powell, Rev. Dr. W. D., mission- 
ary leader in Mexico, 237, 238. 

Presbyterian division, 100. 

Press, the religious : Baptists first 
to establish, 285 ; early examples 
of, 285 ; " The Latter Day Lumi- 
nary, " 286 ; "The Religious Her- 
ald," 287; "The Biblical Re- 
corder," 287,288; "The Western 
Recorder," 288; "The Tennes- 
see Baptist," 288, 289; "The 
Southern Baptist," 289, 290; 
other examples of, 290-293; 
American Baptist Publication 
Society closely allied with, 293- 
296; early appreciated by Bap- 
tists, 332. 

Publication Society, American 
Baptist: aid from, to Sunday- 
school Board, 283; needed aid 
extended by, 284; allied to de- 
nominational press, 293-296 ; aid- 
ing work in South, 295 ; estab- 
lishing branches, 295, 296 ; liter- 
ature of, helpful, 296. 

Ramsey quoted, 69. 

Regulators, 82. 

Revivals: after Revolution, 112; 

"the great," 117. 
"Recorder: The Biblical," 287, 

288; "The Western," 288. 
Revolution, Baptist strength in 

beginning of, 110. 
Reynolds, Rev. J. L„ 141, 223. 



374 



INDEX 



Rice, Luther, 137, 144, 181. 

Rights denied, 64. 

Roberts, Dr. J. M., 136. 

Rockefeller, Mr. J. D. : interested 
in Southern seminary, 262 ; giv- 
ing to Educational Society, 297. 

Ruggles, Prof. W. M., 162. 

Ryland, Dr. Robert, 150. 

Samson, Dr. G. W., 163. 

Sanders, B. M., 143, 146. 

Sanford, S. P., 146. 

Savage, Pres. M. C, 154. 

Savannah, First Baptist Church, 
142. 

Schools, denominational : Furman 
Academy, 139: Georgetown Lit- 
erary and Theological Institute, 
152 ; Hempstead Academy, 156 ; 
Mercer Institute, 145 ; Mt. Enon 
Academy, 142 ; Southern Baptist 
College, 146 ; Wake Forest Insti- 
tute, 147 ; Women's, 163, 164. 

Screven, William, 10, 11. 

Seminary, Southern Theological : 
steps leading to, 243, 244 ; claims 
of, advocated before Conven- 
tion, 244 ; committee appointed 
to consider, 245, 246 ; proposal to 
establish, at Greenville, 247; 
plans proposed for, 250 ; estab- 
lished at Greenville, 251 ; three 
"Bs" concerning, 251; funds 
raised for, 251 ; leaders in the 
establishment of, 252 ; professors 
chosen for, 252 ; suspended by 
Civil War, 253 ; faculty of, meet- 
ing at Greenville after war, 254 ; 
protracted struggle of, 254, 255 ; 
aid from North for, 256 ; removal 
of, agitated, 256 ; removed to 
Louisville, 257 ; generous dona- 
tions to, 258 ; new life for, 259 ; 
endowment secured for, 259 ; 
choice of location for, 260 ; ad- 
dition to resources of, 260-262; 



removal of Dr. Boyce from, by 
death, 262 ; Dr. Broad us becom- 
ing president of, 263; value of 
property of, 264; Dr. Whitsitt, 
president of, 264 ; attendance of, 
265. 

Semple, R. B., 112, 138- 

Separates : Stearns, founder of, 167 ; 
oppose establishment, 167 ; zeal 
Of, 168. 

Separates and Regulars : fusion of, 
111 ; in Kentucky, 119. 

Seventh Day Baptists, The, 338- 
340. 

Sherman, S. S., 156. 

Sherwood, Dr. A., 143, 144, 146. 

Shuck, Rev. J. L., 217. 

Slavery ; factor in denominational 
affairs, 199 ; three phases of as 
an institution, 199, 200; efforts 
to avert trouble because of, 200 ; 
occasions trouble in Triennial 
Convention, 202 ; Foreign Mis- 
sion Board of Triennial Conven- 
tion upon, 205 ; occasions disso- 
lution between Northern and 
Southern Baptists, 206; irrita- 
tion concerning, continues, 209. 

Smith, Rev. James, his missionary 
zeal and capture, 192. 

Somerton, 10. 

Society : American Baptist Publi- 
cation, 293-296; American Bap- 
tist Home Mission, 296, 297; 
American Baptist Education, 
297 ; Woman's Missionary, 299 ; 
African Missionary, 317. 

South Carolina: first Baptists in, 
10 ; growth of denomination in, 
after Revolution, 115 ; leads in 
education, 138 ; organization of, 
Convention, 138; establishes 
denominational school, 139 ; 
schools for girls in, 361. 

" Southern Missionary Journal," 
218. 



INDEX 



375 



Stearnes, 8., 17, 26. 

Stetson, J. B., 161. 

Staughton, Dr. William, 152. 

Sumner, Dr. M. T., 223. 

Sunday-schools: first, in Mary- 
land, 22 ; information concern- 
ing earliest, scant, 266 ; first one 
of, organized, 269; becoming 
more numerous, 269 ; opposition 
to, 270 ; impulse to, by Sunday- 
school Union, 271 ; advocated by 
North Carolina Baptists, 271 ; 
deliverance concerning, from 
Mississippi Baptists, 271, 272 ; ex- 
pressions concerning, from Ala- 
bama, 273 ; opposition to, in 
Kentucky, 273, 274 ; improved 
attitude toward, 274 ; unde- 
nominational literature for, de- 
nounced, 274 ; claiming atten- 
tion of Southern Convention, 
276 ; appointment of committee 
for consideration of, 277 ; culti- 
vated in the South by Publica- 
tion Society, 295 ; address con- 
cerning, to Baptists of South, 
278. 

Taylor, Rev. John, 40, 120. 

Taylor, Dr. J. B., Sr., 149, 210. 

Taylor, Dr. Geo. B., 235. 

Tennessee: first Baptists in, 38; 
statistics, 121 ; Southwestern 
University in, 154; schools for 
girls in, 362; reaction against 
missions in, 171, 195. 

Tensas Settlement, preaching in, 
47. 

Texas: University of, 153; pro- 
posed occupation of, 219. 

Tichenor, Dr. I. T. : secretary of 
Home Mission Board, 224; re- 
marks of, quoted, 227. 

Travis, Alexander, 47, 155. 

Triennial Convention, 162. 

Tories, 41. 



Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestina- 
rian Baptists, The, 356-360. 

Union, Woman's Missionary : con- 
stitution of, 305, 306 ; headquar- 
ters of, 306; recommendations 
concerning, 307, 308; women 
foremost in establishment of, 
308. 

United Baptists, The, 349-351. 

University of Virginia, 151. 

Union University, 154. 

Vanhorn, P. P., 19. 

Vestry Act, 81. 

Virginia : persecution in, 15 ; first 
missionary operations in, 16 ; 
President Manning's letter to 
Baptists of, 135 ; general meeting 
of correspondence, 136; Baptist 
Educational Society of, 149; 
cautionary measures taken in, 
149; manual labor school in, 
150; Baptist Seminary, 150; 
Richmond College founded in, 
151 ; schools for girls, 151 ; Bap- 
tist separation suggested in, 206. 

Walker, Rev. J., causes trouble, 
125. 

Walker, S., ordination of, 126. 

Warne, Prof. J. A., 139. 

Washington, D. C. : denomination 
begins in, 190 ; difficulties in, 191. 

Washington, George: opposition 
of, to Baptists, 101 ; letter from, 
108, 109. 

Wayland, Dr. Francis : discussion 
of, with Fuller, 202 ; champion 
of opposition to slavery, 207. 

Welling, Dr. J. C, 163. 

Wesley, John. 27. 

West Virginia, Baptists enter, 49. 

Western Baptist Theological Insti- 
tute, 153. 

Westrup, Rev. J. O. and I. W., 236. 



376 



INDEX 



Whitsitt, Dr. W. H., becoming 
president of Southern Theolog- 
ical Seminary, 264. 

Whitefield, George, 18; Orphan 
Home, 27, 28. 

Whitman, Dr. B. L., 163. 

Wilhford, W. L., 155. 

Wingate, President, 148. 

Winyaw Bay, 12. 

Witt, Daniel, 188. 

Woolsey, Dr., 52. 

Women, Baptist : organization of, 
299; feeling against work of, 
300 ; movements connected with, 
300-302 ; report upon work of, 



302; work of, considered by 
Southern Convention, 302-305 ; 
representation of, in Southern 
Convention, 305 ; work of, recog- 
nized by Southern Convention, 
306; movement of, organized, 
307 ; recommendations concern- 
ing, 307, 308 ; work of, efficient, 
308; funds contributed by, 308, 
309; institutions for, 361-363. 

Young, Rev. John, 194. 
Yoruba, Africa: missionaries ap- 
pointed to, 232. 

Zeal of Baptist ministry, 47. 




I. A History of the Baptists in New England. 
By Henry S. Burrage, D. D. Published. 

II. A History of the Baptists in the Middle 
States 
By Prof. Henry C. Vedder. Published. 

III. A History of the Baptists in the Western 

States East of the Mississippi. 
By Justin A. Smith, D. D. Published. 

IV. A History of the Baptists in the Southern 

States East of the Mississippi. 
By Prof. B. F. Riley. Published. 

V. A History of the Baptists in the Trans- 
Mississippi States. 
By Lemuel Moss, D. D., LL. D. 



These volumes are uniform in style and price, 
12mo, 320 pp. (or more). Price per volume, $1.25. 
Price per set, $4.50 (net). 



The volumes are independent histories. Each is 
complete in itself, with index, etc. At the same 
time they form a complete history of the denomi- 
nation down to the time of publication. 



